Britney Spears Accuses Justin Timberlake of Cheating on Her with \201cAnother Celebrity\201d in Her Upcoming Memoir

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake during their relationship

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 18 October 2023

It’s probably not a good 24 hours to be Justin Timberlake, as excerpts from his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me, continue to trickle out. The latest? Though Spears was chastised heavily for cheating on Timberlake (ultimately leading to their breakup, so says 2000s lore), Spears claims that Timberlake stepped out on her with “another celebrity” during their relationship. (Spears doesn’t name the other woman since the star “now has a family [Spears] doesn’t want to embarrass,” TMZ reports. Excuse us while we attempt to connect the dots…)

Spears and Timberlake were *the* it couple from 1999 to 2002, and their breakup reportedly inspired his hit “Cry Me a River” (and its accompanying music video), leading the collective world to believe that Spears was unfaithful. Timberlake, to his credit, has never directly accused Spears of cheating. Spears never denied the claims, and released her own song, “Everytime,” a year later; per TMZ, according to Spears’ songwriting partner, the song was a direct response to “Cry Me a River.” (Sample lyrics include “I may have made it rain. Please forgive me. My weakness caused you pain. And this song’s my sorry.”)

Yesterday, another excerpt from the tell-all said that Spears had an abortion while dating Timberlake in late 2000, and Spears wrote that he “definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy” and “didn’t want to be a father.”

“I agreed not to have the baby,” she wrote. “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.”

"The Woman in Me" by Britney Spears

Despite the revelations, a publishing insider said, per Page Six, that Spears’ book was “not a takedown” but instead a “chance to tell her empowering story and…nothing more than that.”

The Woman in Me hits shelves on Tuesday.

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.

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