Britney Spears to pay more child support
Pop star Britney Spears must increase her child support payments to ex-husband Kevin Federline by $5,000 a month as part of a custody settlement agreed to Friday.
Under the terms of the deal approved by Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, Spears will pay a total of $20,000 a month to the former backup dancer.
She will also pay his $250,000 legal bill from lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan.
The custody agreement leaves her two sons -- Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1 -- in Federline’s custody but expands her visitation rights.
The agreement calls for Spears to have the children for a second overnight visit each week beginning in the fall.
Spears’ attorney said the performer was “at peace” with the agreement.
“She couldn’t be happier about it, actually,” said her attorney, Laura Wasser.
“She’s going to see her kids more.”
Spears has monitored visits with the toddlers three days and one night each week.
Spears, 26, lost custody of the boys last year after her behavior became erratic.
In January, after the singer was hospitalized for psychiatric problems, a court appointed her father, Jamie, conservator of her and her estate.
Kaplan did not return a call seeking comment, but he told City News Service, “It’s a great relief [for Kevin] to have this two-year ordeal behind him.”
The agreement averts a trial scheduled for August.
Wasser said negotiations concerned money and visitation rights but not Federline’s custody of the children.
“We would never have sought a modification of legal or physical custody while she’s under the conservatorship,” Wasser said.
Attorneys for Spears and her father are due in court July 31 to discuss continuing the conservatorship.
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