It’s been over 20 years since the headlines were hot, but Kevin Federline is finally addressing the mess he left behind.
In a raw, reflective chapter from his upcoming memoir You Thought You Knew, the former backup dancer turned reality star and father of six is publicly extending an olive branch to his ex-fiancée, actress Shar Jackson… The same woman he left behind in 2004 as he stepped into the global spotlight with pop princess Britney Spears.
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“I handled the breakup with Shar poorly,” Federline, now 47, admits. “I wasn’t honest or direct.”
At the time, Federline was engaged to Jackson, then best known for her role on Moesha, and the couple was already raising their daughter Kori and expecting their second child, Kaleb. But in a move that defined early-2000s tabloid culture, he stepped out—straight into Spears’ Onyx Hotel Tour and, eventually, her arms.
He confesses in the memoir that he lied to Jackson about his whereabouts, saying he’d “booked a commercial shooting overseas” when he was really hopping on a tour bus with Spears across Europe.
“I knew [the truth] would hurt her, and I didn’t want that,” Federline explains. “If I could go back in time, I’d handle that whole thing differently. But life doesn’t work like that. We f*** up and we learn.”
Eventually, the truth came out. Federline picked up the phone and told Jackson he’d been seeing Spears—and that he was catching feelings.
“I could hear the heartbreak in her voice, and the pain it caused,” he remembers. “She was angry. But under the anger was something deeper, a sadness I couldn’t undo.”
He says he tried to soften the blow by making it clear he wasn’t abandoning their kids: “I wasn’t walking away” from Kori or Kaleb, who was born just months after the split. But even that, he says, didn’t change the weight of his actions.
“But none of that changed the fact that I failed her,” he writes. “I should’ve been more upfront about how unhappy I had been with Jackson.”
And it’s not just Jackson who gets the apology. Federline directs a heartfelt message to Kori, now 23, and Kaleb, 21:
“I wasn’t the man I needed to be. I wasn’t the man I wanted to be. And for that, I am truly sorry.”
The tell-all also sheds light on Federline’s broader family life. Aside from his two children with Jackson, he shares sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, with Spears—whom he was married to from 2004 to 2007—and daughters Jordan, 14, and Peyton, 11, with his current wife, Victoria Prince.
In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly on October 15, Federline revealed that things between him and Jackson are more than cordial now—they’re solid.
“Me and Shar are good. We’re great,” he said. “That happened so long ago, and, you know, I’ve apologized to her, and all of that stuff has taken place a long time ago. I just felt that it was an important piece to put in the book.”
And despite the drama that once dominated the gossip blogs, Federline insists there’s no lingering bad blood with either of the women who helped shape his journey.
“I have nothing but respect for her. The same as Britney,” he told Us. “There’s no ill will toward anybody in this situation. Everything that I’ve done and am doing is all out of love and out of respect for our families and our children. Britney and Shar both gave me two of the greatest — or four, I should say — pieces of my life.”
Federline’s memoir You Thought You Knew promises to dive deep into the man behind the tabloid headlines. But if this apology is any sign, K-Fed is ready to close the old chapters—with clarity, not clout.