Britney Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline are feuding over their sons. Here's a complete timeline of their relationship.

Britney Spears and her ex-husband Kevin Federline met at a club in Hollywood called Joseph's, according to the former backup dancer.

Federline told People in 2008, after their divorce: "Our eyes met and that was it. We just hit it off right away. I learned real fast how much of a whirlwind the press and everything was."

On September 16, 2004, three months after they met, Spears and Federline got married early at a private home in Studio City, California. They had initially planned to wed in October.

They invited 27 of their family and friends for an engagement party and only told them moments before the ceremony that it was actually their wedding.

"I just thought it would be too much if we had done it when we were supposed to," Spears told People a couple of days after the spontaneous wedding. "It became this huge thing and I was like, 'What are we waiting for? We know this is the real thing, why not just do it now?' That's why I wanted to sneak and do it our little way."

Their marriage license did not come in time hence they were legally married later.

Spears also told People shortly after the wedding that she was excited to be a mother.

"I can see myself as a mom. Next year, at 23, I am so there," she said.

At the time, Federline had two children with his ex-partner, Shar Jackson, from whom he separated in 2004, after the birth of his second child, Kaleb.

In September 2005, Spears gave birth to the couple's eldest son, Sean Preston. She gave birth to their second child, Jayden James, a year later.

Eight weeks after Spears gave birth to Jayden, she filed for divorce from the rapper.

Spears cited "irreconcilable differences" at the time, according to People.

They reached an initial divorce settlement in March 2007, agreeing to share custody of their children. But according to People, Federline resisted signing the papers over concerns about Spears' behavior. At the time, the "Toxic" singer was in rehab.

They eventually finalized the divorce in July.

In 2007, Spears started to have a very public breakdown.

In February she shaved her own head in front of paparazzi at Esther's Hair Salon in Tarzana, California.

A couple of days later, Spears and her cousin were being pursued by photographers while driving through a gas station in Tarzana, California. After telling the paparazzi to leave her alone, Spears got out of her silver Mercedes, swung an umbrella through one of the photographer's cars, and then drove away. This was all caught on camera.

By October 2007, Spears' actions led to the court in LA awarding temporary custody to Federline of their sons.

In January 2008, People reported that Spears was put on lockdown for a mental evaluation after locking herself in a room with her youngest son, Jayden.

People reported that the officers responded to a call "about a custodial dispute regarding Britney Spears' children" at 8 p.m., one hour after the pop star was scheduled to give the boys back to Federline.

After the police arrived, they arranged the transfer, and Spears was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Los Angeles police Officer Jason Lee said at the time that officers "observed Ms. Spears under the influence of an unknown substance."

Days after this incident, the Los Angeles court awarded full custody to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights.

By July, there was another agreement that she would be allowed two visits and one overnight stay per week.

It was during this time, that the "Circus" singer's father put her under what would be a 13 years-long conservatorship.

In December 2008, after the custody battle, Federline sat down with People to discuss coparenting with Spears.

During the interview, Federline said his happiest memory with his ex-wife was when they got married and then when they had their two sons. However, problems started to arise after their kids were born.

"It's hard enough to be in a marriage, and then have a kid, then kids, it changes everything," the former dancer said. "For me, I'd become more concerned with my children. Not that I ignored Britney, but my kids are always most important."

He also countered Spears' claim that he didn't spend enough time with her.

Federline said: "I didn't give her an ultimatum, but I was trying to work stuff out with her, and she didn't even talk to me or anything and went behind my back and filed [for divorce]. [I was] completely blindsided. It was a huge shock."

He continued: "She'd just had Jayden, and I'd been working for over a year. I did everything that I could to cater around the whole situation: built a recording studio in the house, made sure I could always work at home, try to help out as much as I can. It just … I don't know, I guess it wasn't enough."

Federline also explained that he wanted custody of his children so that Britney could get better for them.

"A reason why we ended up going through the custody battle is because I want my kids to have a mom and love her," he said. "I don't want to do this by myself. Part of the whole thing was to get them safe and get her to where she will always be there."

In 2013, Spears and Federline were spotted together while attending their sons' soccer games.

In March, Spears met her ex-husband's new girlfriend, Victoria Prince, whom he already had a 19-month child with called Jordan Kay. Federline married Prince later that year.

In November, Federline got to meet Spears' boyfriend at the time, David Lucado, at another soccer game. When asked about it by TMZ, Federline said there was no awkwardness with Lucado, adding: "That was my first time meeting him. He's a cool guy."

In 2015, the DJ was asked about his relationship with Spears again during an interview with Us Weekly magazine.

"That time of my life, it was great," he said. "It was fun, it was crazy, it was chaos…The limelight, the entertainment business, the lifestyle — period. When you're 25 years old, how do you handle that? Nobody can prepare you."

Federline said that although their relationship had "ups and downs," he had "so many great memories" that "outweigh the bad."

"For us to split up and me say that, it should speak very loudly," he said.

In 2018, Spears and Federline got into another battle over child support payments.

In February, Us Weekly magazine confirmed that the former dancer's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan sent a letter to Spears' team, explaining why Federline should get more than the $20,000 monthly payment he received at the time.

Kaplan also told People: "We think the reasonable needs for the children while they would be in Kevin's custody is probably three times what he's currently receiving."

According to court documents, Federline wanted to raise the payments to $60,000 a month.

"My income has changed significantly since the child support was last modified in approximately 2008 because I no longer earn a six-figure income like I did in 2008," Federline said in the documents. "I am simply less of a 'name' and less in demand than I was in 2008, which has negatively affected my income."

By September, Spears agreed to pay Federline "thousands more a month in child support" in a confidential deal, according to The Blast.

In August 2019, Spears negotiated a new custody agreement to receive 30% unsupervised custodial rights of her children.

E! News reported that the agreement had been in place since 2018 before it was made official in court.

Federline shared his thoughts about Spears' conservatorship days after she formally asked the Los Angeles court to end her conservatorship.

Spears said in her testimony that she was put on medication against her will and her overseers wouldn't allow her to have her IUD removed to have children.

Spears also shared anecdotes about her father, Jamie Spears, "loving" having control over someone as powerful as her.

On June 29, Federline's attorney Kaplan told People that the DJ wanted what was best for Britney.

"[Kevin] certainly respects Britney and only hopes the best for her because when the best for her is achieved, it's the best for their kids. The kids love their mother and he wants there to be a healthy and strong relationship," Kaplan said.

Kaplan added of the former couple's children: "The best thing would be for their mom to be healthy and happy. And if either of those things aren't true, it doesn't provide for the best setting for custody to be exercised."

Kaplan also said that he feels that Britney had "not been served well by the conservatorship" and his client Federline supports her challenge against her father "if it's what's best for her."

The court eventually ruled in Spears' favor and her conservatorship ended in November 2021.

In April, Spears announced that she was pregnant with her first child with Sam Ashghari, to whom she got engaged in September 2021.

"I lost so much weight to go on my Maui trip only to gain it back… I thought 'Geez … what happened to my stomach ???' My husband said 'No you're food pregnant silly!!!' So I got a pregnancy test … and uhhhhh well … I am having a baby," the "Toxic" singer said on Instagram.

Federline responded in a statement through his attorney Kaplan.

Kaplan told NBC News over the phone, according to Yahoo: "Kevin is aware of Britney's Instagram post. He wishes her the best for a happy, healthy pregnancy and congratulates her and Sam Asghari as they plan for the excitement of parenthood together."

A month later, Spears announced that she had had a miscarriage.

In a now-deleted Instagram post, Spears said that Federline would refuse to see her in the days leading up to filing her divorce in 2006.

She wrote: "But geez my ex-husband wouldn't see me when I flew to New York with a baby inside me and Las Vegas when he was shooting a video !!!"

Spears added that she got advice from an unnamed person to get a divorce.

"I got a text saying, 'If you don't divorce Kevin he will publicly do it to you' … Since I hadn't seen him in a while I already knew it was over … I had my baby," she said.

In August, it was revealed that Federline had decided to tell his side of his relationship with Spears in an exclusive interview with Daphne Barak.

The interviews aired on ITV News in the UK but part of the interview was shared by the Daily Mail in advance.

In the interview, the DJ said that their sons Sean and Jayden had decided to not see their mother for a few months and decided not to attend her wedding to Asghari. He said they also find it hard seeing their mother posting nude selfies on social media.

"I try to explain to them, 'Look, maybe that's just another way she tries to express herself.' But that doesn't take away from the fact of what it does to them. It's tough." Federline said. "I can't imagine how it feels to be a teenager having to go to high school."

Federline added that watching Spears go through her battle for freedom from her conservatorship was "the most challenging thing I've ever had to do in my life."

"This whole thing has been hard to watch, harder to live through, harder to watch my boys go through than anything else," he said.

Despite this Federline still defended the pop star's father, Jamie Spears, saying he would let his sons see their grandfather if they wanted.

"I saw this man that really cared, and really cares about his family and wanting everything to be OK," he said. "When Jamie took over, things got into order. He saved her life."

In the days following the exclusive interview, Spears responded through a series of Instagram posts.

She wrote on her Instagram Story: "It saddens me to hear that my ex husband has decided to discuss the relationship between me and my children ... As we all know, raising teenage boys is never easy for anyone."

She added: "I gave them everything ... Only one word: HURTFUL."

Spears also disagreed with Federline's claims that her sons are distancing themselves from her due to nude photos Spears shared on social media. Her new husband Asghari said on his own Instagram Story that Federline was trying to "vilify" Spears.

Later that week, Spears said in a now-deleted Instagram post that finding out her sons didn't want to visit knocked "the breath out of me."

"I talk about it because my heart doesn't understand cruelty. It breaks my heart because it seems to be that these days, cruelty does in fact win, although it's not about winning or losing !!!" the "Womanizer" singer wrote. "But I can't process how I dedicated 20 years of my life to those kids … everything was about them !!! For them to knock the breath out of me."

She continued: "This summer, they told me, 'we may come here less' and I was like that's fine. I called their dad and I told him that it seems like the boys are wanting to stop coming here as much, which I get because they have their own thing going on but I feel like they are being pretty harsh."

Spears said that Federline told her he would not let their sons come to the decision "on their own" but that she had not seen them since.

Federline responded to his ex-wife's Instagram posts with his own, sharing videos of the singer seemingly arguing with her sons.

He said the videos, which Insider viewed before they were deleted from the platform, were taken by their sons.

"I can not sit back and let my sons be accused in this way after what they've been through," Federline captioned the original post. "As much as it hurts us, we decided as a family to post these videos the boys took when they were 11 & 12. This isn't even the worst of it. The lies have to stop. I hope our kids grow up to be better than this. #NeverFearTruth."

After the video was deleted, Spears' lawyer Mathew Rosengart told People in a statement that the "Circus" singer would like to keep the issues with her sons private.

"Britney has faithfully supported her children and she loves them dearly," the statement said. "Whether he realizes it or not, Mr. Federline has not only violated the privacy and dignity of the mother of his children, he has undermined his own children, whose privacy he should protect."

Rosengart added: "Putting aside his ITV interview, Mr. Federline's ill-advised decision to post an old video of his 11 and 12-year-old children was cruel, bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. It was abhorrent. In addition to demeaning himself and violating societal norms, he has now also created various legal issues for himself including, but not limited to, implicating cyber-harassment and cyber-bullying statutes, among other things."

The lawyer added that he's working with Instagram to ensure Federline follows the rules of the platform and "exploring all appropriate relief against him."

During an interview with "60 Minutes Australia," Federline defended Jamie Spears again, saying that he "saved" his daughter.

"A hundred percent, I feel like he saved her back then," Federline said when asked whether Jamie saved his daughter by putting her in the conservatorship.

Federline added that he "couldn't get involved" with the conservatorship because he had to look after their two sons.

"I wasn't involved in any of it so I really don't know how the conservatorship came about, I don't know whose decision it was," he said. "All I know is that you have a family that is worried about their daughter and trying to do whatever they can to help her. That's all that I knew."

During the interview, Jayden said that he felt uncomfortable attending his mother's wedding because Spears did not invite other members of her family to the event.

"I'm really happy for them, but she didn't invite the whole family," the teenager said. "And then if it was just gonna be me and Preston, I just don't see how that situation would have ended on good terms."

In September, Spears shared that losing custody of her sons felt like "a huge part of me has died" amid her feud with Federline.

The "Gimme More" singer posted a series of audio clips on Instagram, including one in which she spoke about her sense of loss after losing custody of her children.

"From when they were six to nine years old, I had them 70% of the time, and of course, since they've been gone I've honestly felt like a huge part of me has died," she said in one of the clips. "Like, literally, have no purpose anymore. They were my joy. They were my everything. I looked forward to seeing them. That was what I lived for and then all of sudden they were gone and I was like, 'Did my heart just stop beating?'"

She added later: "Honestly, I don't understand how it's so easy for them to cut me off like that."

Spears also said that she doesn't want her boys to visit until she "feels valued."