Of all the revelations from pop star Britney Spear’s new book, The Woman in Me, the excerpts about Justin Timberlake are what the world is talking about the most. Here are two exes who had been together in their teens for three very photogenic years, and now we get to go beyond the PR hogwash right into the heart of their breakup—the why and how of their parting.
Britney has evoked much curiosity about the state of her mental health in the past. Three divorces, two kids and a public record of all her meltdowns— destabilised by dysfunctional family dynamics, unable to play the fame game. While Justin has been the very picture of domestic bliss, married to Jessica Biel, with two kids, belting out hits.
A conservatorship meant Britney’s father controlled her life from 2008 to 2021, which still saw her going on tours and earning, but with little freedom to live life her way. She describes him as “an alcoholic, someone who’d declared bankruptcy, who’d failed in business, who terrified me as a little girl”. #FreeBritney has long been a thing.
Justin apparently broke up with her on the phone, with a two-word text: ‘It’s over.’ Director Chris Applebaum has been quoted as saying he found Britney bawling on the floor while shooting a music video. She showed him Justin’s text, and reportedly said, “I am going to show him that he let go of the best thing he ever had.” But before that was a pregnancy. “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. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.” But an abortion followed, carried out at home for secrecy purposes. Because “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”. In the aftermath of these revelations, a source speaking for Justin had this to say: “He’s happy at home with Jess and their kids and he’s focusing on new music. He’s in such a great place.”
He didn’t want to be a dad, she says. But she had no choice but to be an expectant mom for a few traumatic days. She writes, “I took the little pills. Soon I started having excruciating cramps. I went into the bathroom and stayed there for hours, lying on the floor, sobbing and screaming.” And while she had her heart broken, these confessions reveal the confusion of terminating a pregnancy that one party wants to keep and the other doesn’t. And in laying bare her ordeal, Britney gives us one aspect of the gender divide.
Shinie Antony
Author
shinieantony@gmail.com