Earlier this month, Britney Spears’s lawyer confirmed that she’d given permission for her sons, 17-year-old Preston and 16-year-old Jayden, to move to Hawaii with their dad, Kevin Federline.
Kevin and his wife, Victoria Prince, had reportedly decided to relocate from California to Hawaii in order to pursue professional careers, with Victoria having apparently been offered a job at a Hawaiian university.
Kevin’s lawyer, Vincent Kaplan, told People last month that Preston and Jayden are “ready to get away from the L.A. microscope,” and that this move to Hawaii is a great “opportunity” for them to do so.
However, Kevin’s decision to relocate to Hawaii specifically ended up sparking controversy after several fans of Britney’s theorized that he had ulterior motives, and was actually hoping to benefit from the state’s child support laws.
For some context, Kevin was granted sole custody of his and Britney’s children back in 2008, when she was placed under a strict conservatorship.
Over the years that Kevin has had sole custody, Britney has not only provided him with a monthly child support payment of $20,000 for each of the boys, but also covered their school, insurance, and clothing expenses.
In 2018, Kevin sparked outrage after he requested an increase on the amount of money that Britney was providing him in child support — all while she was still living under the terms of the strict legal arrangement.
Fast forward to 2022, and Kevin faced a wave of backlash once more after making a series of public claims about Britney’s relationship with their boys.
Sitting down with the Daily Mail last August, Kevin claimed that Jayden and Preston had pointedly “made the decision” to stop seeing their mom — something that Jayden seemingly went on to discuss himself during a wide-ranging interview with ITV News.
“I don't think she showed enough to Preston and I feel really bad for that,” he said of Britney. “We've both been through so much pressure in the past that this is our safe place now, to process all the emotional trauma we've been through to heal, heal our mental state.”
Britney ended up posting a now-deleted audio clip in response to Jayden’s interview, within which she said that in two years’ time, he and Preston won’t be getting “anything” from her anymore.
Weeks later, we learned that Kevin had asked Britney for her permission to move their boys over to Hawaii, which, as we know, she approved.
In light of Kevin and Britney’s history, many of the pop star’s fans quickly accused him of purposefully moving their sons in order to benefit from Hawaii’s child support laws.
In California, where they’re currently situated, a parent is typically only required to pay child support until their child turns 18. In Hawaii, however, child support must be paid until children turn 23, if they’re enrolled in full-time education. Hawaii is the only state where this is the case.
Fans of Britney pointed out that Kevin’s move is timed just as the singer’s regular child support payments for Preston are about to stop, with the young boy turning 18 in September. Kevin reportedly plans to move over to Hawaii a month prior, in August.
“there's a loophole in hawaii where you have to pay child support until the kid is 23 (so long as they're attending school)… he's exploiting her for money,” someone else speculated.
Now, Kevin has finally responded to the widespread rumor himself.
In a video obtained by Page Six this week, Kevin was firstly asked by a paparazzo if he’s still planning on moving to Hawaii, to which he remained silent.
Kevin was then asked if he’d “allow” Britney to see their sons before he and Victoria move. Once again, he refused to answer and kept walking.
But then, when the paparazzo mentioned that “a lot of people” think Kevin is moving to Hawaii in order to benefit from the state’s child support laws, the DJ firmly declared: “A lot of people say a lot of stupid things.”
As for Britney, she’s yet to publicly address the move. However, she did make reference to her kids shortly after the news broke by sharing a throwback paparazzi photo of herself carrying a young Preston in her arms to her Instagram page.
