Britney Spears is getting personal about her past relationship with N*SYNC’s Timberlake. In her upcoming memoir, The Woman In Me (available October 24th), she opens up about a heartbreaking event.
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake dated from 1999 to 2002, during the peak of their careers. While the couple appeared happy at Red Carpet events and even coordinated their outfits at the MTV VMA shows, the Princess of Pop harbored a painful secret from the public.
In an exclusive excerpt from the memoir, first reported by People, Britney reveals that she underwent an abortion when pregnant with Timberlake’s child more than twenty years ago. Between then and now, only those close to the “Baby One More Time” singer knew of her experience. The reasons for the abortion were that Timberlake wasn’t ready to be a father and believed they were too young.
“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” Britney reflected in her memoir. “I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I anticipated. But Justin wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
Timberlake hasn’t spoken up about Britney’s loss, but his representatives reached out to Us Weekly last week, saying he’s “not going to be happy” as Spears “goes after him hard” in the book.
Britney continues with her devastation, “If it had been up to me alone, I never would have done it. And Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father. To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
After she and Timberlake separated, Britney married Kevin Federline in 2004, with whom she had two sons, Sean Preston in 2005 and Jayden James in 2006. Shortly after Jayden’s birth, Britney filed for divorce from Federline, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Britney’s memoir will be available on bookstands and online on October 24th and will be told in her own words, from her thirteen-year conservatorship, family life, and decades-long career. Her truth will finally be spoken.
To coincide with the book’s release, there’ll be a two-day theatrical screening of Britney’s 2002 coming-of-age movie, Crossroads.