Britney Spears' custody 'wrench'

Jan 23, 2008, 13:30 GMT

Britney Spears EPA/PAUL BUCK

Britney Spears' court appearance on Monday (21.01.08) was "gut-wrenching", says ex-husband Kevin Federline's lawyer.

Kevin's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan, who questioned Britney for two hours about her lifestyle and parenting of sons, two-year-old Sean Preston and 16-month-old Jayden James, also warned the custody battle has only just begun.

Kaplan said: "We are going over things that are very, very gut-wrenching. Just to revisit them even in your own mind would not be pleasurable. It's not something anyone would enjoy."

Kaplan revealed the 26-year-old singer will be required to attend further court-ordered depositions as he has many more issues to quiz her about - including her reported drug and alcohol use, and her failure to attend a previous deposition.

He said: "I have only worked through two per cent of my questions. There is a lot of work to be done. She was about 50 minutes late on Monday, but she came for her deposition, that's great. Showing up is form over substance."

He added: "There are certain things that have to be done by her in order to make everyone comfortable - and to answer any unresolved questions so that we don't have to worry about anything that occurred a few weeks ago.

"She is not the enemy. She is not being viewed as the enemy, and what is being done, even though it may be unpopular with her, is to make sure that she can be a full participant going forward in the future."

Britney is set to appear in court today (23.01.08) for an emergency hearing to ask for visitation rights to her sons to be restored.

Kevin, 29, currently has full custody of the children. Britney had three supervised visits a week with the boys, subject to drug testing, but lost those rights in an emergency court order on January 4.

The ruling was made after she was involved in a three-hour stand-off with police when she refused to return the boys to Kevin. The chaotic incident ended with the singer being hospitalised for a psychiatric evaluation.

Britney is said to be hoping she will be granted visits with the boys in a "therapeutic setting".

(C) BANG Media International