Justin Timberlake doesn’t seem to care what Britney Spears has to say about him and their relationship in her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me.
A video clip has surfaced on X (formerly known as Twitter) of the Sexy/Back singer, 42, singing the 2002 song about his split from the Spears, Cry Me a River, at Dave Chappelle’s birthday party in August.
Before beginning the song, he told the audience: ‘They said not to do this song no more. F*** that!’
Britney, 41, and Justin started dating in 1999 and broke up in 2002 with allegations of a cheating scandal dogging them for years.
The lyrics for Cry Me a River also describe cheating: ‘You don’t have to say, what you did / I already know, I found out from him / Now there’s just no chance / For you and me.’
Sexy/Back: Justin Timberlake doesn’t seem to care what Britney Spears has to say about him and their relationship in her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me
Denim duo: A video clip has surfaced of the Sexy/Back singer, 42, singing the 2002 song about his split from the Circus singer, 41, Cry Me a River at Dave Chappelle ‘s birthday party in August
Justin even went so far as to hire a Britney look-a-like for the music video of the song.
When the song premiered in 2002, Justin warned Britney that he was releasing a ‘controversial’ video which she revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2003.
‘I think I was in shock, to be honest. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. That was the last thing I ever thought somebody might do. I was really shocked s**tless. But you live and you learn.
‘He got what he wanted. I think it looks like such a desperate attempt, personally. But that was a great way to sell the record. He’s smart,’ she told the outlet at the time.
In her memoir, the Toxic singer writes about that period in time and describes the video as ‘a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain.’
She went on to write that the media attention the video got turned her into a ‘harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy,’ when she was actually ‘comatose in Louisiana’ nursing a broken heart while Timberlake was ‘happily running around Hollywood,’ Variety reported.
While Britney has taken the heat and been assumed she was the one who cheated on Justin, he actually cheated on her on more than one occasion, she claims in her memoir.
The Oops!…I Did It Again singer wrote that the What Goes Around Comes Around hitmaker was photographed with ‘one of the girls from All Saints’ in London in 2000 and also bragged to one of her backup dancers about a girl he hooked up with in Las Vegas.
Timberlake hasn’t been kind when it comes to rehashing his relationship with Spears over the years.
During a 2003 interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20, the legendary journalist asked him if Britney had ‘kept her promise to wait to have sex until marriage. Justin immediately burst out laughing.
A few years later, in 2006, he told journalist Robert Haskell, ‘If I was writing an article about [Britney], I would not be able to fight the urge to write every dirty thing about her.’
Not backing down: Before beginning the song, he told the audience: ‘They said not to do this song no more. F—k that!’
Performers: Britney and Justin started dating in 1999 and broke up in 2002 with allegations of a cheating scandal dogging them for years
Commentary: When the song premiered in 2002, Justin warned Britney that he was releasing a ‘controversial’ video which she revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2003
Bad karma: ‘I think I was in shock, to be honest. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. That was the last thing I ever thought somebody might do. I was really shocked s**tless. But you live and you learn,’ she said
In February 2021, the It’s Gonna Be Me singer posted a lengthy Instagram post apologizing for things he’d said about Spears in the past.
It read, in part: ‘I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right.’
He continued: ‘I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.’
Prior to the release of her memoir Britney came clean and admitted to having an affair with choreographer Wade Robson while she was dating Timberlake.
