Britney Spears Throws Shade at Ex Justin Timberlake for “Talking S ** t”
Before there was Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefanior Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz and even Beyoncé and Jay-Zthere was Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears
Popular song’s golden couple was practically the prettiest thing you ever did see when they started dating in 1999. They shared anecdotes about how they established shared crushes while interacting as tweens in 1992 on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club (he was her very first kiss!) before reconnecting 7 years later on.
At the time, Spears will break through with her multiplatinum launching… Baby One More Timethat made school uniforms cool and moms and dads aghast and Timberlake was hard at work on ‘N Sync‘s follow up to their similarly effective self-titled release.
Theirs was a connection filled with all the enthusiasm and enjoyment of puppy love–“I was fascinated with her from the minute I saw her,” he later on informed GQ— plus a heady rush of success with the set controling in an area likewise inhabited by the similarity Christina Aguilera Jessica Simpson Fate’s Child and the Backstreet Boys
They carried out throughout the Super Bowl halftime programand appeared together on Saturday Night LiveThey gathered more prizes than they might perhaps show in their shared Hollywood Hills home and nearly handled to make matching denim-on-denim-on-denim appearance excellent at the American Music Awards. (They didn’t, however if anybody might have actually managed denims as official wear it would have been music’s flaxen-tressed power duo.)
“I like him from the bottom of my heart. As far as love is worried, with him, excessive is insufficient. He’s whatever,” Spears mused in a September 2001 interview with The Guardian“It is a much deeper love now than when I was more youthful. Like, we’ve gone through a lot together and we’ve understood each other given that we were 12 years of ages. We understand each other within and out.”
Till one day, apparently out of the blue, they simply didn’t, news of their March 2002 break up tearin’ up fans’ hearts.
KMazur/WireImage
Years before joint split declarations published to social networks were basic, 21-year-old Timberlake and 20-year-old Spears were delegated discuss what the f– k occurred over and over and over once again. (And again, for excellent step, Spears revealing theirrelationship drama and their choice to get an abortionin the middle of other realities in her October 2023 releaseThe Woman in Me)
Practically right away, cheating reports formed, Timberlake assisting to fan those specific flames with cagey quotes about how he “guaranteed her” he would not share what occurred and his November 2002 release of “Cry Me a River,” a tale about a sad, mistreated male that the vocalist stated “was composed in a time of discomfort.”
For Spears, the battle was more than simply losing the individual she had actually been visualizing permanently with considering that she was a teenager. “I’m still harming, however I am attempting to see it as an experience,” she shown toThe Sun in 2002. “The worst thing is everybody wishes to speak to me about it. All over I go individuals are asking how I am.”
Generally, as Spears showed in an Instagram postin April 2020, some 18 years after the reality, “We had among the world’s most significant breaks up.”
With Timberlake excited to promote his brand-new solo effort Warranted (“At this point in my life, if you truly wish to know who my sweetheart is, it’s those 13 tunes on that CD,” he kept in mind to Barbara Waltersthe post-separation press onslaught wasn’t all that bad for him.
“It’s amusing due to the fact that each time somebody interviews me they’re like, ‘You understand, listen, I truly dislike to ask this, however …'” he informed E! at the time, discussing why he was unbothered by the basic line of questioning. “For me, I’m truly indifferent.”
He did have an item to press, his preliminary single off his November 2002 launching disc, “Like I Love You,” just reaching No. 11 on the Signboard charts. And if that suggested sharing anecdotes about the heartbreaking end to his first-ever major love, he ‘d do it with a lovely smile and simply sufficient openness for fans to presume that he was the mistreated celebration.
Scott Gries/ImageDirect
“I keep in mind when we chose we were going to go our different methods, we took a seat and I stated to her, ‘If there’s ever a minute where you ever require me, you can feel confident that I will exist, due to the fact that I enjoy you as an individual and I will constantly like you,'” he remembered, talking to Walters for20/20in November 2002. “But I likewise stated, ‘Look, no matter what we state at this moment individuals are going to hypothesize things, and I might actually get myself in a terrible position if I was to state something and someone misinterpreted, since that takes place all the time.'”
He definitely didn’t wish to provide anybody the incorrect concept, he continued, so he ‘d simply share that he ‘d “assured her that I would not state particularly why we separated.”
Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock
Ought to anybody care to check out in between the lines, he was pleased to play a couple of bars from “Horrible Woman,” a brand-new track he ‘d composed that consisted of the lyrics, “I believed our love was so strong/ I think I was dead incorrect/ But to look at it favorably, hi lady/ At least you provided me another tune about a dreadful lady.”
Asked outright about the unfaithful allegations, he informed Walters, “Honestly, I indicate, you understand, we’re not ideal. I do not evaluate anyone.”
There were lots of others to deal with that.
In “Framing Britney Spears,” the 2020 episode of FX’s The New York Times Presents docu-series, we were all advised how crassly the twentysomethings’ sex life was gone over in the wake of their split and simply how quickly Spears was slotted into the function of bad guy.
Timberlake might barely handle a straight face when Walters raised a quote Spears had actually provided stating “great morals suggest waiting to make love till after you’ve been wed.” Asked if they ‘d “lived up” to that messaging throughout their relationship, he split, “Sure,” with a laugh before gazing straight into the video camera and duplicating himself: “Sure.”
He ‘d currently dealt withthe subject 2 months previously on the Star and Buc Wild Morning ShowWhen asked, “Did you f– k Britney Spears, yes or no?”, he reacted, “Okay, I did it!” triggering the gaggle of brothers to break out in raucous cheers.
By the time he covered Information in December 2002, the mag was announcing, “Can we ever forgive Justin Timberlake for all that sissy music? Hey … a minimum of he entered into Britney’s trousers.”
The age of knowledge this was not. With the #MeToo motion and terms like “sex-positivity” still a number of years off, Timberlake was hailed as a dominating hero; Spears, a doubtful good example for her young fans.
And though the “Sometimes” vocalist stayed quiet on what did or did not occur behind closed doors at the time, she admitted to Diane Sawyer throughout thatmuch-maligned-in-retrospectNovember 2003 interview, “It was a truly unusual time.”
Listening to her previous partner happily dish on “what we did together, sexually and things,” she continued, “I simply felt extremely made use of and really strange. I resembled, ‘Why is he going on these programs and they’re asking him and he’s talking?’ You understand, however I’m sure, much like today, you’re asking me about it and I’m speaking about it and it simply sort of comes out.”
Since there was little time for the pop princess to prevent the topic. She had her own disc to promote– 2003’s In the Zoneworking as her 4th release in less than 5 years. Just now she ‘d need to do it whilst evading concerns about her ex-boyfriend’s music
“Cry Me a River,”Warranted‘s 2nd single a track mostly presumed to be an autobiographical take on their split likely would have eclipsed its predecessor “Like I Love You,” with its lyrics alone: “You do not need to state what you did/ I currently understand, I discovered from him.”
When the video dropped, including 18-year-old blonde model-actress Lauren Hastingsa Spears doppelgänger to the newsboy hat, well, it appeared terribly intentional. Unexpectedly Timberlake had a runaway hit and Spears had some ‘splaining to do.
Timberlake had actually connected to notify her that he ‘d cast a lookalike to appear opposite him, however it was still difficult to procedure. Seeing the video while on trip, “I was type of in rejection, like, I entered into this entire rejection stage or whatever,” she described to Sawyer. “I do not wish to evaluate him or anything like that, since that’s the method he needed to handle what took place. Which’s fine.”
Still, she continued, “I understand if I remained in a relationship and something occurred, I simply, I could not truly go there.” Sure, her single “Everytime” in which she sang “My weak point triggered you discomfort/ And this tune’s my sorry” appeared to be about Timberlake. As she stammered to Sawyer, “I’ll let the tune simply speak for itself.”
World Photos/Mediapunch/Shutterstock
Not that it mattered. The story had actually currently been set.
A September 2002United States Weekly cover asked, “Did she betray him,” and every action the 2 made from there was viewed as a tactical relocation in their continuous war.
When Spears marched in a t-shirt announcing “Dump Him,” fans hypothesized the instruction was targeted at Timberlake’s then-rumored flame Alyssa MilanoA socialize with Backstreet Boys’ Nick CarterAn effort to make her ex jealous.
Came the “Cry Me River” of it all. Regardless of Timberlake declaring throughout the TRL drop that “the video is not about her,” it sure appeared that method. “People treated her like she was the school slut and he was the quarterback,” previous MTV VJ Dave Holmes remembered of the hysteria on “Framing Britney Spears,” keeping in mind how Timberlake “weaponized the concept for among his songs.”
By the time Spears took a seat with Sawyer almost a year later on, she had actually all however been identified the criminal. As the veteran reporter put it in her interrogation, “You did something that triggered him a lot discomfort, a lot suffering. What did you do?”
Doing her finest to stay diplomatic, Spears merely reacted, “We both are actually young and it was type of waiting to occur. I will constantly like him … he is such an excellent individual,”
When it comes to whether she ‘d betrayedshe informed Sawyer thoroughly, “I believe everybody has a side of their story to make them feel a particular method … and I’m not technically stating he’s incorrect however I’m not technically stating he’s best either.”
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Technicallythat’s the closest we ever got to a response, neither side elaborating even more. Till this previous fall, with Spears declaring in her narrative that Timberlake cheated on her
When it comes to Timberlake, he continued to reference his popular ex long after she ‘d carried on, initially with now-ex-husband Kevin Federlinedaddy to her kids Sean18, and Jayden17, then a series of nearly Mr. Rights consisting of separated spouse Sam Asghari
Speaking on Spears’ now-infamous kiss with Madonna at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, Timberlake informedEllen DeGeneres“I do not believe I was revolted. I believe I was simply not pleased. I indicate, I anticipated a lot more. It’s the VMAs, you understand?”
And in 2006, 4 years after their separation, when he was more than 3 years deep into his love with Cameron Diazhe went back to the reliable scorned male archetype, dropping “What Goes Around Comes Around” on his sophomore solo album and reviewing his huge break up in a chat with GQ
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
“When we at first parted methods I seemed like she had a number of chances to simply arrange of stick up for me, and she didn’t,” he described of that preliminary animosity. “Which is fine. At that time, you understand, I battled back, and that’s the method I battled back. I utilized my mind. I developed a tune.”
As an included advantage, his technique assisted change his own curly-haired, spotless young boy band track record. “One minute Timberlake was a forgotten antique of tiny pop, the next he’s making the video for ‘Cry Me A River’ in which he’s stalking his ex and approaching behind her to smell her hair,” GQ composed in a 2006profileannouncing him their International Man of the Year. “And within the area of a year nobody might offer 2 hoots about his New Mickey Mouse Club starts. Timberlake all of a sudden ended up being Trousersnake and he ‘d done the difficult– he ‘d end up being cool.”
That he ‘d done it at the expenditure of his previous sweetheart now appears quite indisputable thanks to the advantage of hindsight. With “Framing Britney Spears” digging not just into her complex 13-year conservatorshiphowever likewise the harassment and slut-shaming she withstood following her split with Timberlake, even he needed to confess he had not dealt with the scenario all that well.
As fans flooded social networks requiring he excuse utilizing the story of their separation to assist release his solo profession, Timberlake released a mea culpa on Instagramtaking ownership “for the time in my life where my actions added to the issue, where I spoke up of turn, or did not defend what was right.” (He likewise provided a direct apology to Spears and 2004 Super Bowl halftime co-performer Janet Jacksonwho bore the impact of the criticism for the nipple shield-bearing accident that released the term “closet breakdown.”)
LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP/Getty Images
Amongst those focusing was Spears, who long back let her teenage sweetie off the hook for his disobediences, frequently utilizing his tunes as the soundtrack for her Instagram dance videos and even confessing that he stays on the list ofher dream partners
With her book and his latest release “Selfish” as soon as again riling up their fanbases, will they, oops! … resume their fight once again? After Timberlake required to the phase in a Jan. 31 performance revealing he ‘d “like to take this chance to say sorry to definitely f– king no one,” Spears appeared to react with a Feb. 1 post before making her Instagram profile personal.
“Someone informed me somebody was talking s– t about me on the streets !!!,” she composed. “Do you wish to bring it to the court or will you go home weeping to your mommy like you did last time??? I’m not sorry!!!”
Possibly she’s preparing to provide us, offer us more information in another book.
(This story was initially released on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021 at 12 a.m. PT.