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18th October 2023
02:51pm BST
Britney Spears has claimed Justin Timberlake cheated on her during their relationship.
The singer, now 41, dated the singer-turned-actor for three years from 1999 to 2002 with the pair meeting when the Baby One More Time star was 17 and Timberlake was 18 on The Mickey Mouse Club.
Spears made the claim in her upcoming memoir - The Woman In Me - where she also revealed she fell pregnant to Timberlake but the pair decided to abort. The book is due to be released on October 24.
Spears did not name the person Timberlake allegedly stepped out on her with, simply referring to her as "another celebrity".
According to TMZ, the star also said in her book she did not wish to name the woman because they have a family and she doesn't want to embarrass them.
In an excerpt obtained by People, Spears talks about the "agonising" decision to determine the pregnancy, after conceiving in late 2000.
"It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn't a tragedy," she wrote.
"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.
"He said we weren't ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young. 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."
Spears went on to say she wanted the baby and "dreamed of having a family" with Timberlake, who "wasn't ready".
The performer said the abortion was "one of the most agonising things I have ever experienced in my life."
Timberlake went on to marry Jessica Biel in 2012. The pair have been married for over a decade and together 16 years. The couple share sons Silas, eight and Phineas, two.
Spears married Jason Allen Alexander in 2004, but called it off two days later.
From 2004 to 2007 she was married to Kevin Federline, then went on to marry Sam Asghari in 2022. They split earlier this year.
Spears, now 41 shares sons Sean, 18, and Jayden, 17, with Federline.
According to Page Six, Timberlake is “concerned” about Spears’s book release.
“He’s very curious what she’ll reveal from their relationship,” one insider said.
“It’s eating at him.”
Speaking to People, Spears said her memoir was just about having an opportunity to tell her own life story.
“Over the past 15 years or even at the start of my career, I sat back while people spoke about me and told my story for me,” she said.
“After getting out of my conservatorship, I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people in charge of my life.”
The Woman in Me is available for preorder now and is due to be released on October 24.
Timberlake's career took off in the wake of his split from Spears, amid rumours that she had broken his heart.
In the music video for his 2002 hit Cry Me A River, he even used a Britney lookalike, with the singer herself vilified for their break-up.
In 2018, Timberlake said he was so emotional following his split from Spears that he unloaded his feelings by writing Cry Me a River in just two hours.
Timberlake didn't mention Spears by name in his book - Hindsight: And All The Things I Can't See in Front of Me - but made clear he was a changed man, crediting his wife and sons for his transformation.
In 2021, Timberlake wrote in an open apology that he was "deeply sorry" and would "take accountability" admitting that he had "failed" her, after their relationship came under fresh scrutiny following the release of documentaries looking into Spears' conservatorship.
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