Amidst all the revelations made in Britney Spears’s The Woman in Me memoir, one involved person in particular has generated a lot of conversation over the last month.
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That person is Justin Timberlake, who dated Britney from 1999 to 2002.
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Among the revelations in the book about Justin was Britney having an abortion at one point during their relationship.
In the book, Britney describes the abortion as “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life” and says that she had the procedure because Justin “didn’t want to be a father.” “It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” Britney writes about the pregnancy. “I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated. But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
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There was also a recounting of Justin’s “blaccent” when meeting the singer Ginuwine — an anecdote that inadvertently went viral in the form of Michelle Williams’s audiobook narration.
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Amidst all this, Justin’s past and recent present have come under fresh scrutiny — such as an unearthed clip of him performing “Cry Me a River” at Dave Chappelle’s birthday party earlier this year.
“Cry Me a River” is notoriously about Justin’s breakup with Britney — which, btw, was reportedly handled over text. The video includes not-so-subtle allusions to their relationship, using a Britney lookalike to suggest that she cheated on Justin — and in The Woman in Me, Britney says the clip framed her as “[The] harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.” She also describes her experience after the video was released as being “comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”
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The public backlash has been notable. Some have speculated that Justin or his team are employing bots to defend him online, while reports have suggested that he’s keeping the book’s contents out of sight and out of mind.
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Apparently, it’s gotten bad enough that Justin had to turn the comments off on his posts entirely.
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Of course, there’s also the question of how Justin’s wife, actor Jessica Biel, feels about all of this recent activity — and it seems like we now have something of an answer in that department.
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A source tells Entertainment Tonight that the couple have “been focusing on their relationship and family as always,” even as the increased scrutiny hasn’t been the most pleasant thing in the world to deal with.
Justin and Jessica have been married since 2012; they share two children together.
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“It has been somewhat upsetting to have past instances be brought back up into the public eye, but they are making sure to be there for each other and continuing to move forward.”
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The source also told the publication that Jessica is Justin’s “main priority” and that he “always wants her to feel taken care of and supported” — but, he also “feels awful that Jessica has to deal with things from so long ago from his past in the present.”
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“He has evolved so much from the person he was in his late teens and early twenties, just like everyone does, and wants to continue to grow.”
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The source also claims that Justin “supports Britney’s choice to share her story and only wants the best for her.”
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We’ve reached out to Justin and Jessica’s reps for further comment; we’ll let you know if we hear anything back.
