Britney Spears Says Ex Justin Timberlake Got 'Power' in 'Shaming' Her
Britney Spears claims that her ex Justin Timberlake was oblivious to the harsh backlash she received following their 2002 breakup.
In her upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, Spears, 41, writes that she doesn’t think Timberlake, 42, ever realized the “power” he had in “shaming” her for the split, a source confirms to Us Weekly.
Spears recalled being booed in public after Timberlake released his 2002 breakup hit “Cry Me A River.” The music video for the single features a Spears lookalike, seemingly recreating the pair’s split. The two ended their 3-year-long relationship after rumors spread that Spears was unfaithful to the ‘NSync member.
In the book, Spears writes that although her managers tried to portray her as “an eternal virgin” — despite losing her virginity at the age of 14 — she was subsequently labeled as a “cheating slut” and a liar after Timberlake publicly confirmed their relationship was sexual.
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake: A Timeline of Their Ups and Downs
Alexa, play “Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake — and then, cue up “Everytime” by Britney Spears. Timberlake and Spears called it quits two decades ago, but fans are still invested in their rocky romance. The former boy bander and pop princess met in the early ’90s while filming The Mickey Mouse Club. In […]
Ultimately, she was not mad about Timberlake outing the more intimate details of their romance as she was not concerned about maintaining the “young-gin virgin” image her managers created into her 20s. However, the revelation still hurt because she was “still reeling” from having an abortion. (In a book excerpt earlier this month, Spears revealed that she got pregnant during her relationship with Timberlake and had an abortion after he stated that he wasn’t ready to become a father.)
Spears notes that she didn’t “handle things well” at the time — even believing she was the “bad guy” in their breakup — and has since felt like she’s been put “under a sort of curse.”
According to another source, Spears admits to cheating Timberlake with her former dancer and choreographer Wade Robson in her memoir, as well as alleges that he cheated on her “a couple of times” with a member of the British girl group All Saints and a girl he met in Las Vegas.
Over the years, the former couple have each addressed how cheating played a part in the end of their romance. “We’re not perfect. I don’t judge anybody,” Timberlake told Barbara Walters during a 2002 interview. “It’s just young love. It was a very intense relationship, that’s for sure.”
Walters questioned Spears about the cheating allegations in an interview one year later. “I’m not saying he’s wrong, but I’m not technically saying he’s right either,” she told the late broadcaster in 2003.
In his 2018 memoir, Hindsight: & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me, Timberlake revealed that he wrote “Cry Me a River” in two hours after feeling “scorned” and “pissed off” about the split. “The feelings I had were so strong that I had to write it, and I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and, hopefully, relate to it,” he wrote. “People heard me and they understood it because we’ve all been there.”
Britney Spears' Ups and Downs Over the Years
Britney Spears’ career and personal life have faced a series of ups and downs over the years. Spears first showed off her vocal skills on the singing competition Star Search at 10 years old in 1992. Following a stint on The Mickey Mouse Club, she signed a record deal with Jive Records in 1997 and […]
Ahead of The Woman in Me’s official release, a source exclusively told Us that Timberlake is “trying to distance himself” from the book, adding, “It’s not something he’s focusing too much on in terms of anything she might discuss when it comes to their former relationship.”
The insider added that the Grammy winner “has a whole different life now” and is “focused on his family, his career, and moving forward, and he would like to leave everything that happened in the past behind them.” (Timberlake shares sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 2, with his wife, Jessica Biel. Spears is also the parent of two boys — Sean, 18, and Jayden, 17 — whom she shares with ex-husband Kevin Federline.)
The Woman in Me hits bookstores on Tuesday, October 24.
