Britney Spears: New role

Los Angeles, July 2 (Reuters): Is pop princess Britney Spears ready for her new role as a stepmother? Her fiance’s pregnant ex-girlfriend hopes so.

Actor Shar Jackson has a two-year-old daughter by Spears’ husband-to-be, dancer Kevin Federline, and is expecting their second child in the near future.

“I don’t know her (Spears), I can’t speak for her, but ready or not, here it comes,” Jackson said in an interview airing Wednesday on the syndicated TV show Access Hollywood.

Jackson added that she anticipates getting together with Spears soon to clear the air. “After I meet her and everything’s cool, we can be one big happy family,” Jackson said in excerpts from the interview.

Jackson said she harbours no ill will toward Spears — “You should never blame the other woman, never” — and that the breakup of her three-year relationship with Federline has been hardest on their daughter, Corey.

“Hearing her ask for daddy and he’s not there,” she said. “That’s the only part that hurts. That’s it.”

For her part, Spears says in an interview in the forthcoming issue of People magazine that she does “plan to meet his daughter”. She denied rumours that she is pregnant, but added she sees herself with several kids of her own someday. Spear’s publicist said the singer welcomed Jackson’s overture and looked forward to her role as a stepmom.

Spears, 22, and Federline, 26, who once performed as a backup dancer for Spears’ former beau, pop star Justin Timberlake, announced last week they were engaged but gave no date.

In their joint interview with People, the couple revealed that it was Spears who initially popped the question to Federline during their flight back to the US from her recent European tour. “And I said no. I was taken by surprise. I thought the guy was supposed to ask the girl. So a couple minutes went by and then I asked her.” Recalled Spears: “I kind of knew he was going to come back and ask me. And I said yes, of course.”