Britney Officially Engaged

Britney Spears' representatives have confirmed that the singer is engaged to backing dancer Kevin Federline.

The couple were first photographed together in late April on Santa Monica beach in California. They are believed to have first met in 2000 when Federline danced for Spears' opening act LFO on tour.

A spokesperson for Spears' record label Jive Records, Sonia Muckle, said, "I can confirm that yes, she is engaged". Her personal publicist, Nicole King, has also confirmed the news.

Federline reportedly moved in with Spears following the recent debilitating knee injury that forced her to cancel the US leg of her world tour. According to Spears' PR, no date has yet been set for the wedding, nor has there been a statement from the raunchy pop princess herself.

The union, as with some of Britney's previous relationships, is not without controversy. When photographs of the couple on a Californian beach surfaced, it was the first Federline's then-girlfriend of three years, TV actress Shar Jackson, who is due to give birth to their second child in July and has a two-year-old daughter by Federline, knew of it.

Jackson recently told a magazine: "If [Britney] and Kevin want to be a couple, that's fine with me. But there are two little kids. She'd better be prepared to baby-sit."

Spears was previously rumoured to have become engaged to Justin Timberlake before they split in 2002 amid rumours of her infidelity. In January this year she married childhood sweetheart Jason Alexander for just 55 hours.

KS