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Kevin Federline
Background information
Birth name	Kevin Earl Federline
Born	March 21, 1978 (1978-03-21) (age 30) Fresno, California, U.S.
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genre(s)	Rap, Hip-hop
Years active	2005–present
Label(s)	Federation Records, under exclusive license to Reincarnate Music
Associated acts	Britney Spears, Ya Boy
Website	www.KevinFederline.com

Kevin Earl Federline (born March 21, 1978) is an American dancer, rapper, fashion model,¹ and actor. Previously engaged to actress Shar Jackson, Federline is best known for his two-year marriage to pop singer Britney Spears.² The couple's divorce was highly publicized, followed by an ongoing legal battle for the custody of their two sons, Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline. As of January 2008^[update], Federline has sole custody of the children.³

Early life

Federline was born to parents Mike, a car mechanic, and Julie, a former bank teller from Oregon; the name "Federline" is of German origin. Federline has a brother, Chris. His parents divorced when Federline was 8, at which time he won his first rap battle in Milton, Florida with his mother and brother. When Federline was 11, he and Chris moved back to his father's Fresno house. Federline dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, but later earned a GED.⁴

Career

Back-up dancer

Federline was a back-up dancer for a number of years for Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, Christina Milian, and LFO.²⁴⁵

Rapper

Federline initially released two singles, "Y'all Ain't Ready" and "PopoZão" shortly after his marriage to Spears. Following poor critical reaction, neither song was included on his debut album.² Instead, the first official single was "Lose Control", which he premiered on the Teen Choice Awards show on the FOX network in late summer 2006.² He released his debut album, Playing with Fire, on October 31, 2006 which became one of the worst received albums in recent music history, receiving the lowest score in an overwhelming majority of reviews⁶ as well as lackluster sales.⁷

Model

Federline has been signed to model for the Five Star Vintage line by the San Francisco-based Blue Marlin clothing company. The initial series of ads ran in August 2006, and was subsequently extended for Holiday 2006. The line he modeled for the Fall 2006 was the top selling line in Macy's, Kitson in Los Angeles and Lord & Taylor.⁸

Television appearances

Federline co-starred with Spears on the 2005 reality television show, Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, which consisted of home videos shot by the couple. He also appeared in the 2004 movie, You Got Served. Federline subsequently guest-starred as a street hoodlum in an episode of CSI that aired on October 12, 2006 in the USA and Canada. He also guest starred on the NBC show 1 vs 100 along with the cast of Las Vegas, in the episode "Delinda's Box".

Federline was featured in a Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company commercial during Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007, as part of its "Life Comes at you Fast" ad series. In the commercial, Federline initially appeared in a music video rapping about living a high flying lifestyle. Then, reality sets in as Federline is shown now working in a fast food restaurant with his manager yelling at him, the punchline of the ad being "Life comes at you fast."⁹

Federline guest starred during several episodes and was subsequently added as a regular on the television series One Tree Hill on The CW.¹⁰

Professional wrestling

Federline in the ring with The Big Show, Queen Sharmell and King Booker.

Federline appeared on WWE programming to promote his album, Playing with Fire, and participate in an angle. He first appeared on the October 16, 2006 and October 23, 2006 editions of WWE RAW, in which he got into physical altercations with WWE Champion John Cena. The following week, he came to the ring to aid Johnny Nitro in his match against John Cena. After Cena got in Federline's face, Federline slapped him extremely hard. He appeared again during the November 5, 2006 pay-per-view event Cyber Sunday, hitting Cena with King Booker's World Heavyweight Championship belt and helping Booker win the Champion of Champions match that was organized between Cena, Booker, and Big Show. The next night, November 6, 2006, he challenged Cena to a match at the New Year's Day edition of RAW, which Cena accepted. He would go on to win this no-disqualification match, thanks to interference from Johnny Nitro and Umaga. Later in the night, after John Cena's main event match, Cena went after Federline and brought him into the ring and delivered his FU finishing move twice before cameras stopped rolling.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Federline was well-received backstage. Sources say he worked so well with the company and personnel, that the WWE may give him a regular role on the company's show RAW in the near future.¹¹ Other sources and wrestlers have spoken about Federline's generally good attitude backstage, as well.¹²

Personal life

Federline was in a relationship with actress Shar Jackson. The couple have a daughter, Kori Madison Federline (born July 31, 2002), and a son, Kaleb Michael Jackson Federline (born July 20, 2004).⁴¹³ Federline and Jackson separated shortly before the birth of their second child; during this time, Federline began dating pop singer Britney Spears. Jackson later commented that Federline's relationship with Spears "wasn't like just breaking up a relationship. It was like breaking up a family."¹⁴⁴ Despite this statement, Jackson has sustained an amicable relationship with Federline. On January 12, 2007, Jackson stated, "He's a great dad and if you said his name right now, Kori would go crazy. That's the love of her life."¹⁵

In July 2004, Federline and Spears announced their engagement, after three months of dating. The couple was married on September 18, 2004 in a surprise, non-denominational ceremony at a residence in Studio City, California, filing legal papers on October 6.¹⁶¹⁷ The couple had their first son, Sean Preston Federline, on September 14, 2005.¹⁸ Just two days before Sean's first birthday, the couple had a second son, Jayden James Federline, who was born on September 12, 2006 in Los Angeles.¹⁹

Spears filed for divorce from Federline on November 7, citing irreconcilable differences and asking for both physical and legal custody of their two children, with visitation rights for Federline.²⁰ The following day, Federline filed a response to Spears's divorce petition, seeking physical and legal custody of their children.³ According to a representative for Federline's lawyer, the divorce filing "caught Kevin totally by surprise".²¹ The couple reached a global settlement agreement in March 2007 and their divorce was finalized on July 30.²²²³²⁴ Federline maintains a relationship with Spears's parents for the benefit of their children, and Spears's family have been photographed in and out of his home and babysitting the boys while Kevin was out of town.²⁵

On October 1, 2007, a court ruling granted Federline sole physical custody of his children with legal custody to be decided. On the late evening of January 3, 2008, police were called to Spears's home after the singer reportedly refused to relinquish custody of her children to Federline and locked herself in a room with her youngest son, Jayden.²⁶ Police were called to the scene, and Spears was taken from her home on a stretcher and hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for appearing to be under the influence of an unknown substance.²⁶ As a result of this, Federline was "awarded sole legal custody and sole physical custody of the minor children."³

On 26 July 2008, court papers were filed stating Federline would retain sole legal and physical custody of the children, while Spears would get visitation rights which would increase over time. In addition to this, Federline will receive $20,000 per month from Spears in child support, as well as additional funds to cover any custody-related legal expenses.²⁷

Satire

Federline's stage name of K-Fed and status as the ex-husband of Britney Spears was ridiculed by some media commentators, who labeled him "Fed-Ex"²⁸ after the package delivery company FedEx. Weird Al also filmed an extremely scathing mock interview with Federline.

Discography

Album

• Playing with Fire (October 31, 2006)

Singles

• "PopoZão"
• "Lose Control"
• "Privilege"

References

External links

• Official site
• Kevin Federline at the Internet Movie Database
• Kevin Federline's Myspace
• Kevin Federline at People.com