A defiant Britney Spears takes on the tabloids

Matt Lauer, NBC News: So when the magazine screams on the cover: pregnant and divorcing, you want people to know...

Spears: Oh no. None of that’s true.

In her song “Toxic,” Britney Spears talks about a poisonous relationship. But despite what the tabloids say, that’s nothing what her life is like with husband Kevin Federline.

Lauer: Let’s talk about married life.

Spears: Okay.

Lauer: All right. How’s your marriage?

Spears: Awesome, thank you.

Lauer:   Awesome.

Spears: Um-hmm. (Affirms).

Jeffrey Neira / AP file In this photo released by CBS, pop singer Britney Spears shares a laugh with host David Letterman on the set of The Late Show with David Letterman, Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in New York. Spears announced on the show that she and husband Kevin Federline are expecting their second child.

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline will celebrate their second anniversary in September. They have a 9-month-old son Sean Preston and another baby on the way, which Britney chose to publicly announce on “The Late Show” with David Letterman.

It was a televised birth announcement, which was no surprise considering Mr. and Mrs. Federline have been living in front of the cameras ever  since they started their relationship. And don’t just blame the paparazzi.

Although Britney claims she wants her privacy, she had no problems turning her relationship with Kevin into a reality show. “Britney and Kevin: Chaotic,” a reality show, aired on UPN.

And with the Federlines feeding the very hand that bites them, it’s no surprise that the marriage of a multi-millionaire pop star and a former back up dancer and aspiring rapper who left his pregnant girlfriend to be with said pop star has raised the tabloid’s interest in Britney to a level she couldn’t have imagined back in those Mouseketeer days.

Lauer: Let me show you some magazines.  Okay?

Spears: Okay.

Lauer: These are all current.  I don’t have to show you all of them all but we got one here.  “Britney moves on without Kevin.”  “Brit’s new man—”

Spears: Oh no. That’s my security guard.

Lauer: “The final days, fed up with Kevin’s lies, he’s sleeping in the basement.”  We’ll get to these individually but basically this is the tone:  that this marriage is over, that there are problems in paradise and it’s not gonna last.

Spears: You know what?  I need to create my own magazine.  These people like—I mean,  they want stories to sell and they’re very good.  I need to come up with my own magazine and say the real deal.

Lauer: We’ll set the record straight.  I mean first of all, in an effort of full disclosure, when I came through the gate today the first person I saw was Kevin.

Spears: Yeah.

Lauer: So he’s living here.

Spears: Oh definitely.  He’s working very hard.

Lauer: Living on the ground, the main floor?

Spears: He’s— yes of course.

Lauer: He’s not there in a basement somewhere?

Spears: He helps me.  He has to.  I’m emotional wreck right now.  So.

Lauer: Are you really?

Spears: Not in a bad way just, you know, I’ll start laughing hysterically and then I’ll just start crying like just because—

Lauer: So it’s the hormones of the pregnancy—

Spears: It’s my hormones.

Lauer: —racing through your body.

Spears: Yeah. So it’s nice to have my husband there to keep my company.

Vince Bucci / Getty Images February 8, 2006:Spears  and husband Kevin Federline arrive at the SONY BMG Grammy Party held at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.

Lauer: Do you get the sense Britney that people are rooting against this marriage?  And I don’t mean just the magazine editors.  I mean people.

Spears: I don’t really know.  I don’t know.  If they are, then I think that’s sad.  I think everybody should be “pro-love.”  And I know it sounds so silly but I feel like love conquers all.

Lauer: One of the magazines asked a question on the cover.  It said, “Can this marriage be saved?”  And then they went on and answered their own question and said, “We hope not.”

Spears: What magazine was that?

Lauer: It’s here somewhere. (Matt looks for Star magazine, and reads out the cover headline)  “Can she work it out with Kevin?  We hope not.”

Spears: Like I said, I try not to respond to trash.

Lauer: What do you see in him?  What is it about Kevin that makes you love him?

Spears: He’s very simple.  Women complicate everything.  He’s so simple.  His simplicity and just he’s like a boy.  He just, you know, and he cares.  He cares so much and his—his heart is awesome.  He has a really big heart and I love that.

Kevin has been a tabloid target himself these past few months, called everything from a freeloader to a philanderer—which he strongly denies.

Recently, he has tried to do a little image makeover of his own, posing for a cleaned-up cover shot for this month’s “Item magazine.”

The 28-year-old didn’t want to be interviewed the day we visited but he recently spoke with Access Hollywood and demo-ed his debut CD:

In the interview, he raved about Britney.

Kevin Federline (Access Hollywood interview): She’s so supportive, she, from the first time I went in and started recording she was there. She was pregnant and everything, she was right there.

And Kevin talked about how he’s been misunderstood:

Federline: I have feelings, and hurt, happy sad, cry, fight all that, everything. It’s no different than nobody else.

And as for those tabloid taunts that he’s a gold digger, Kevin maintains he’s his own man:

Federline: I have been paying for everything out of my pocket.

And although Britney is clearly the breadwinner in this family, she’s well aware just how important it is for her husband to pull his own weight. 

Spears: You know, he has children now that he wants to support and not just let it be all me. He’s a man. I think it’s very important to him that he is doing his own thing.

Lauer: Do you think there’s a sense out there, Britney, that some people who love you and have watched you grow up... and have watched you go through the pop princess years and into young adulthood— get some feeling that he’s not good enough for you?

Spears: Oh, that would hurt me for  anybody to say that.  You know that would be horrible for someone to say that because I love him and that’s all that matters. 

Lauer: So if there’s a headline to come out of the marriage portion of this interview is that you’re happy and there is no end in—

Spears: Yeah.

Lauer:   —sight to this marriage.

Spears: No.  Um-um (Negative).

Lauer: You look at me sometimes when I say things like that almost like a little puppy dog.  Like  it—

Spears: No, because I say it because I just feel for him.  You know because he’s a man and he’s trying to work and do his thing and I feel bad for him.

Lauer: Well, how does it affect him when he hears about this?  When he hears everybody you know predicting that this marriage is over that he’s living in the basement that he’s on the way out?

Spears: I would (unitelligible) to cry.  That hurts.

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