Justin Timberlake reportedly appeared to take a shot at his ex-Britney Spears when he told an audience he would be apologizing to “absolutely f***ing nobody” — after Spears appeared to issue a mea-culpa to Timberlake days earlier.
During the 43-year-old singer’s one-night-only show in New York, just before performing his hit song “Cry Me A River” (a breakup song about Spears) Timberlake reportedly said, “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f***ing nobody,” People magazine reported.
The comments came after Spears appeared to apologize to Timberlake “for the things” she wrote about in her tell-all memoir “The Woman in Me” — in which she revealed that while they were dating, she got pregnant and got an abortion.
Justin Timberlake told a New York City audience he’d “like to take this opportunity to apologize — to absolutely … nobody,” just days after Britney Spears said she was sorry about comments from her book. https://t.co/tor6wc95KM
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 1, 2024
In an Instagram post, the 42-year-old singer poured praise on Timberlake and shared a screenshot of the superstar singer’s recent appearance on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon,” where he debuted one of the new songs on his album.
“I wanna apologize for some of the things I wrote about in my book,” Spears wrote in the caption next to the screenshot. “If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about I am deeply sorry.”
“I also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish,'” she added. “It is soo good and how come every time I see Justin and Jimmy together I laugh so hard?”
As of Thursday, Spears’ apology post has been deleted. The “Toxic” hitmaker also reportedly responded to Timberlake’s swipe in a screenshot shared Thursday that read, “Someone told me someone was talking sh*tabout me on the streets! Do you want to bring it to the court or will you go home crying to your mom like you did last time? I’m not sorry!”
In October, Spears revealed in her book that she got pregnant at 19 and ended up getting an abortion, claiming that it was in large part because Timberlake “didn’t want to be a father.” The two dated from 1999 — when she was 17 and he was 18 — until 2002, Variety noted.
She wrote that if it had been left up to her alone, she never would have aborted the baby, but added that Timberlake said they were “too young” to have a child.
“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” the former “The Mickey Mouse Club” star 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.”
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” she added. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
“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 singer continued. “And yet 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.”
Spears also claimed in her memoir, that while they were dating, Timberlake cheated on her with “another celebrity,” but she said she wouldn’t name the person because she’s now “married with children.”