When Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman In Me hit bookshelves this past October, it allowed the iconic pop star to share elements of her life in her own words, including detailing a rather tumultuous time dating Justin Timberlake, ranging from an alleged abortion, text message breakup from the NSYNC singer, and both of them cheating on each other. When Timberlake played a show on January 31, many believe he referenced the discourse around the book. He went viral for saying he’s sorry to “nobody” before singing “Cry Me A River." Shortly after, Spears had some blunt words on social media.
“Cry Me A River” is a 2002 hit of Justin Timberlake’s that was allegedly written about Britney Spears to publicly embarrass her. Just before going into the song at a concert he played in New York City, Timberlake was filmed telling the audience he “would like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely fucking nobody.” Just a day later, Spears wrote this on her Instagram (via People):
Someone told me someone was talking shit about me on the streets!!!! Do you want to bring it to the court or will you go home crying to your mom like you did last time??? I’m not sorry!!!!
The words were the caption to a post Britney Spears wrote on February 1 alongside an artsy image of an orange moon being strategically placed in the middle of a basketball hoop. Now, neither Justin Timberlake nor Britney Spears named the other in these comments, but the singer bringing up not being sorry right before “Cry Me A River” does seem to point to the past drama. In Spears’ book, she addressed receiving backlash after Timberlake put out the song and alleged breakup revenge music video for it, claiming that Timberlake hurtfully portrayed her as a “harlot”.
Per Spears’ memoir, which quickly became a bestseller, she said that Justin Timberlake sent her a text message while she was filming a music video that read “It’s over!!!” that effectively ended their relationship. While Britney Spears also admitted to cheating on Timberlake, the singer reportedly was unfaithful to her as well.
Along with expanding on the story behind “Cry Me A River,” Britney Spears also claimed in The Woman In Me that she became pregnant with their child when she was 19 and Timberlake “wasn’t happy about the pregnancy.” If it was up to her, she said she would have never gone through an abortion but Timberlake allegedly “didn’t want to be a father.” Ever since the release of the memoir, Timberlake has received online backlash, which Lance Bass even weighed in on.
The Woman In Me is available to read or listen to right now. Coming up, Britney Spears’ Crossroads will be streaming with a Netflix subscription on February 15. Justin Timberlake is also set to release a new album Everything I Thought It Was sometime this year.
