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In her new memoir The Woman in Me, singer Britney Spears claims that her ex-boyfriend, fellow pop star Justin Timberlake, got her pregnant and that she had an abortion.
According to Spears, she found out she was pregnant with Timberlake’s baby in late 2000, which would have made her 19 years old at the time. Timberlake and Spears were both born in 1981, which means he was around the same age.
The pair dated each other from 1999 to 2002, with reports at the time indicating that Spears had a desire to marry Timberlake.
In the book, Spears essentially says that the abortion only happened because of Timberlake and that is was her desire to keep the baby.
“Justin definitely 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,” Spears writes, via People.
“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. 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.”
The revelation comes from Spears’ new book The Woman in Me, which will be released on October 24. According to reports from when her book deal was announced in February 2022, Spears was paid $15 million for the project, which is one of the largest book deals of all time.
At the time of the alleged pregnancy and subsequent abortion, Spears was one of the most popular musicians in the world following the release of her massively popular albums ...Baby One More Time in 1999 and Oops!… I Did It Again in 2000.
Spears would wind up having two kids with her ex-wife Kevin Federline, while Timberlake would marry actress Jessica Biel in 2012, with whom he also shares two children. At this time, according to TMZ, Timberlake has yet to respond to Spears’ claims.
The release of Spears’ book comes on the heels of a tumultuous couple of years for the iconic pop star as her father’s infamous conservatorship over her was officially terminated by a judge in 2021, thus allowing her to write this memoir.