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Former couple Timberlake and Spears: “Fights that no longer exist”

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Denise Truscello/WireImage/Getty Images

They were the big pop couple of the early noughties - but the relationship between Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake ended in bad blood. In the music video for the song “Cry Me a River,” Timberlake once suggested that Spears had cheated on him. Years later, in her autobiography “The Woman in Me,” Britney Spears wrote how much this hurt her.

"I was described in the media as a bitch who broke the hearts of America's golden boys," said Spears in her million-selling memoir. It also says she terminated a pregnancy after Timberlake said they weren't ready for a child. He also cheated on her several times.

A passage in Britney Spears' autobiography suggests that Timberlake may have consciously used the public portrayal of the relationship to further his career: "The thought of how I had cheated on him gave Justin's album an existential twist, a goal: it was an 'unfaithful one.' “To pay back the woman”, such a narrative was “very fashionable” at the time.

With the album “Justified” in 2002, *NSYNC member Timberlake began his rise to fame as a solo star, who for a while was one of the biggest in the pop scene. In recent years, however, the public view of the singer has changed, including through a reassessment of his role in the "Nipplegate" scandal with Janet Jackson - and also through Britney Spears' comments in her autobiography. Since then he has no longer been considered a “golden boy”.

When Timberlake announced his first solo material since 2018's Man of the Woods last week, he faced backlash from Spears' camp. His single "Selfish," released on January 25, faced unexpected competition at the top of the charts: Some of Spears' fans organized an online campaign to place a 2011 Spears song of the same name in the charts ahead of Timberlake's re-release.

In fact, the sabotage was successful, at least in the US iTunes charts: Spears' "Selfish" was at number one on Friday and ahead of Timberlake's "Selfish" at the weekend, as People magazine reported.

But Spears clearly has no interest in further deepening the rift with Timberlake: In a message to the 42.5 million followers of her Instagram account, Spears wrote that she wanted to "apologize for some things I wrote in my book." If she has hurt people who are deeply important to her, she is sorry.

She wrote the sentences under a picture of Justin Timberlake during his guest appearance on the latest episode of the US comedy show “Saturday Night Live”. Timberlake presented his current piece there. »I also want to say that I love Justin Timberlake's new song. 'Selfish' is so good!” She also laughed a lot at the joint sketch between late-night talker Jimmy Fallon and Timberlake.

Several fans reacted with disappointment over Britney Spears' apology on social media. She has no reason to apologize. The British tabloid "The Sun" quoted Timberlake's former *NSYNC colleague Lance Bass, who claimed that the former pop couple had long since spoken out privately. "He apologized. She's great." It seems to him as if people want to keep struggles alive that no longer exist.

Feb