Britney Spears confirms long-standing rumors that Justin Timberlake broke up with her via text message in her highly anticipated memoir.
via: Rolling Stone
According to The New York Times, which obtained an early copy of the book, Spears details the end of her relationship with Timberlake, claiming he initiated their split via text. She says the breakup left her “devastated,” and she thought about leaving her music career behind altogether.
Spears and Timberlake were pop’s royal couple from 1999-2002 before their relationship came to a screeching and highly publicized halt. At the time, they never publicly spoke about the break-up, instead letting their songs and music videos do the work. However, it was heavily rumored that Spears had cheated on Timberlake with choreographer Wade Robson. The song and video for Timberlake’s breakout solo hit “Cry Me a River” appeared to confirm as much when he cast a Spears look-alike in the visual.
Spears discusses her reaction to the video in the book, which she describes as “a woman who looks like me cheats on him, and he wanders around sad in the rain.” It led to a swift change in the public’s perception of Spears, who believes the media portrayed her as “a harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.” The reality of her life then was that she “was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”
A rep for Timberlake did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
Spears does admit to kissing Robson while dating Timberlake but notes that it was a reaction to rumors of his own infidelities. Following Timberlake’s solo break at Spears’ expense, she felt pressured to do an infamous interview with Diane Sawyer, where the star was interrogated about what she did to put Timberlake through “so much pain.” Her father and management team had pressured her into doing the interview, which she describes as a “breaking point.”
“I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world,” she writes.
Ahead of Woman in Me‘s launch, an excerpt from the book also revealed that Spears became pregnant with Timberlake’s child while they were dating. The pair agreed to have an abortion after Timberlake said he didn’t want to be a father. Spears admits she is still not sure if it was the right decision.
