Two decades later, Kevin Federline is extending an olive branch to his ex-fiancée Shar Jackson.
Federline, 47, says in his upcoming memoir, You Thought You Knew, that he regrets cheating on Jackson, 49, with Britney Spears in 2004 and wishes he had left the Moesha alum sooner because their relationship had been unraveling for some time.
“I handled the breakup with Shar poorly,” he writes. “I wasn’t honest or direct.”
Federline admits he lied to Jackson by telling her he had “booked a commercial shooting overseas” when he was actually joining Spears, 43, in Europe for her Onyx Hotel Tour.
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“I knew [the truth] would hurt her, and I didn’t want that,” he 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, Federline called Jackson to come clean, telling her that he had been secretly hooking up with Spears and was starting to fall in love with the pop star.
“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.”
Federline writes that he tried to ease the blow by assuring Jackson that he “wasn’t walking away” from their daughter, Kori, or their son, Kaleb, the latter of whom the actress welcomed just a few months later.
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“But none of that changed the fact that I failed her,” Federline acknowledges, adding that he “should’ve been more upfront about how unhappy” he had been with Jackson.
Federline goes on to apologize to Kori, 23, and Kaleb, 21, specifically, writing, “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.”
Later in his book, Federline reveals that Kaleb recently welcomed a baby of his own.
“He made me a grandfather,” he writes. “A shock at first, to say the least. But I’m so proud of how Kaleb’s stepping into fatherhood. He’s always been driven … and I’ll keep supporting him as he follows his path.”
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Federline is a father of six. In addition to his eldest two children, he shares sons Sean Preston, 20, and Jayden James, 19, with Spears, to whom he was married from 2004 to 2007, as well as daughters Jordan, 14, and Peyton, 11, with his wife, Victoria Prince.
During an exclusive interview with Us on Wednesday, October 15, Federline shared that he and Jackson have a “great” relationship today, adding, “I have nothing but respect for her. The same as Britney. 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.”
He continued, “Me and Shar are good. We’re great. 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.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Jackson for comment.
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Spears has also publicly spoken about Federline’s past relationship, insisting in her 2023 memoir, The Woman in Me, that she “had no idea” about Jackson, Kori or Kaleb when she began dating the former backup dancer.
“I was clueless,” she wrote. “I was living in a bubble.”
Spears took to X on Wednesday to respond to Federline’s tell-all, writing in part, “The constant gaslighting from [my] ex-husband is extremely hurtful and exhausting.”
You Thought You Knew is available on Tuesday, October 21, via Listenin, an audio-first platform.
