Kevin Federline alleges in a forthcoming memoir that Britney Spears would sometimes stand silently in their sons’ bedroom doorway at night “with a knife in her hand,” describing incidents he says occurred when the boys were teenagers and stayed at their mother’s home, claims that Spears has “strongly” denied through a representative as “sensationalized” and opportunistic. The allegation appears in You Thought You Knew, due for release on October 21, and was first reported after advance pages were shared with multiple outlets. “They would awaken sometimes at night to find her standing silently in the doorway, watching them sleep—‘Oh, you’re awake?’—with a knife in her hand,” Federline writes, according to the published excerpts. “Then she’d turn around and pad off without explanation.” Spears’ camp responded hours later: “She flatly denies this,” the representative said, accusing her ex-husband of attempting to profit from disputed accounts nearly two decades after their separation and amid a renewed promotional tour.
Federline, 47, frames the passages as part of an overarching warning about what he calls his former wife’s worsening condition since the end of her court-ordered conservatorship in 2021. In recent on-camera interviews trailed by Entertainment Tonight, he says he felt compelled to “sound the alarm,” adding, “I just wish that their mom would get help. It’s 10 times worse than anything I’ve said in my book.” He argues that parts of the #FreeBritney movement, which galvanized public opinion in favor of terminating the conservatorship, morphed into a narrative that equated legal freedom with safety. Spears’ representative rejected that premise and noted that she “told her story in her own memoir,” The Woman in Me, last year.
The knife allegation is the most incendiary of several claims Federline has put on the record during the book rollout, which has included assertions that their sons, now 20 and 19, struggled with visits during high-school years and that Spears’ online behavior has sometimes complicated attempts at reconciliation. People magazine’s account of the excerpt placed the alleged nighttime episodes during the period when the boys were living primarily with Federline and spending time with their mother under a longstanding custody arrangement. Entertainment Weekly reported that Spears’ team “strongly denies” the knife claim and criticized the timing, pointing out that Federline’s child-support obligations ended as the younger son reached adulthood.
The renewed public fight over the family’s history arrives nearly four years after a Los Angeles judge terminated the conservatorship that governed Spears’ personal and professional life for 13 years. In emotional courtroom statements in 2021, Spears called the arrangement “abusive,” said she had been compelled into treatments and performances she did not want, and pleaded for her “life back.” The court ended the regime that November, finding the legal structure no longer necessary. Since then, Spears has posted prolifically on social media and published her memoir, while Federline moved with his family to Hawaii in 2023 with court approval. He has made few televised appearances until the current cycle, when he sat for interviews in which he said he had not had a substantive personal conversation with Spears in years and that his appeals were aimed at the public and at those around her.