Britney Spears’ “Everytime” cowriter, Annet Artani, has shut down fan speculation that the song was penned about the pregnancy that Spears terminated in the early 2000s.
Artani, 47, told TMZ on Friday, October 20, that the song was more so inspired by her own breakup instead of Spears and Timberlake’s split. Artani claimed that she had recently ended her relationship with Dan Kenney, Spears’ musical director at the time, and she channeled that pain into the song.
Spears, 41, collaborated on the track, which was written less than one year after her breakup from Timberlake, 42. According to Artani, Spears never mentioned a potential baby or an abortion during the musical session.
“Everytime,” which came out in 2003, has long sparked rumors that it is about Spears and Timberlake’s split.
“Notice me / Take my hand / Why are we strangers when / Our love is strong? /Why carry on without me?” she sings. “Every time I try to fly, I fall / Without my wings, I feel so small / I guess I need you, baby / And every time / I see you in my dreams / I see your face, you’re haunting me / I guess I need you, baby.”
Spears recently alleged in her The Woman in Me memoir that she found out she was pregnant when she was dating Timberlake.
“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,” Spears wrote in her debut book. “I’m sure people will hate me for this, but I agreed not to have the baby. I don’t know if that was the right decision. 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.”
Since the passage made headlines, eagle-eyed fans revisited the “Everytime” lyrics and its accompanying music video. In the clip, Spears is seen walking through a hospital alongside two women: one who just died and another who recently gave birth.
Neither Spears nor Timberlake have not publicly commented on the inspiration for “Everytime.”
The two Grammy winners, who met on the set of The All New Mickey Mouse Club, went public with their romance in 1999. They split three years later in 2002 after reports of infidelity on both sides. (Spears has since alleged in The Woman in Me that they were both unfaithful.)
Timberlake has not issued a public comment on Spears’ bombshells, with a source telling Us Weekly that he is “trying to distance himself” from the tell-all.
“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 told Us earlier this month. “Justin and Britney dated so long ago, and he has a whole different life now. He’s focused on his family, his career, and moving forward, and he would like to leave anything that happened in the past behind them.”
The former ‘NSync singer married actress Jessica Biel in 2012 before welcoming sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 2. Spears, for her part, shares two sons — Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17 — with ex-husband Kevin Federline. She later moved on with Sam Asghari, whom she wed in 2022 before they separated earlier this year.
