Britney Spears seemingly called out ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake and revealed a surprising detail about their past relationship.
“OH I’M SHOOK!!! Psss … I never mentioned how I beat him in basketball 🏀 and he would cry … no disrespect 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️!!!” Spears, 42, captioned a video via Instagram on Friday, December 15.
While Spears didn’t mention Timberlake, 42, by name, the phrase, “no disrespect,” seems to be in reference to J.T.’s performance in Las Vegas on Wednesday, December 13. Timberlake said the same words before performing “Cry Me a River,” a song he allegedly wrote after he ended his three-year relationship with Spears in 2002. While the lyrics allude to infidelity, the song’s music video also famously features a blonde actress who looks eerily like Spears.
The pop icons’ past romance came back into the spotlight after the release of Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me. She detailed quite a bit about their ups and downs in the book, including claiming that she and Timberlake both cheated on each other. However, she felt like Timberlake got the upper hand publicly with the speedy release of “Cry Me a River” after their split.
“I felt there was no way at the time to tell my side of the story,” Spears wrote of the song. “I couldn’t explain, because I knew no one would take my side once Justin had convinced the world of his version. I don’t think Justin realized the power he had in shaming me. I don’t think he understands to this day.”
Spears said she was “devastated” by the breakup, and she thought the public looked at her as the “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.”
Timberlake previously addressed the release of “Cry Me a River” in his 2018 book, Hindsight.
“I’ve been scorned. I’ve been pissed off. The feelings I had were so strong, I had to write it,” he wrote in his memoir. “I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and hopefully relate to it. People heard me and they understood it because we’ve all been there.”
Timberlake has remained hush-hush since the release of The Woman In Me, but a source exclusively told Us Weekly that he was “disappointed” with the amount of intimate details Spears spilled.
“Justin thought Britney might talk about their ups and downs in more general terms — not air out their very personal, dirty laundry,” the insider told Us in October, adding that the former ‘NSync bandmember “regrets that he hurt Britney.”
A second source noted that Timberlake was “young” at the time, acontinuing, “He thinks Britney has every right to tell her story and hopes they can move on now.”
