Britney Spears is sharing secrets about her relationship with Justin Timberlake in her memoir, The Woman in Me, but he has moved on from the drama.
“Justin will always be supportive of Britney and all of her endeavors, but he’s trying to distance himself from her upcoming book,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly. “It’s not something he’s focusing too much on in terms of anything she might discuss when it comes to their former relationship.”
Spears, 41, will release her memoir on Tuesday, October 24, but Us has confirmed she heavily mentions her past relationship with Timberlake, 42, in the tell-all. The two singers dated in the late ‘90s after meeting on the set of The All New Mickey Mouse Club. A second source revealed earlier this month that Spears claims in the book that Timberlake cheated on her “a couple of times” during their relationship.
While the former ‘NSync singer has not publicly addressed Spears’ recent claims, the first insider notes that he has “a whole different life now.” Timberlake married Jessica Biel in 2012 before they welcomed sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 2.
“Justin and Britney dated so long ago, and he has a whole different life now,” the source tells Us. “He’s focused on his family, his career, and moving forward, and he would like to leave anything that happened in the past behind them.”
Elsewhere in The Woman in Me, Spears revealed that she had an abortion after she became pregnant with the pair’s baby. According to Spears, Timberlake attempted to console her after the procedure by playing his guitar.
Timberlake and Spears broke up in 2002, which seemingly inspired his hit song “Cry Me a River.” In the 2003 music video, Timberlake costarred with a Spears-lookalike who “cheated” on him. As a result, fans speculated that Timberlake was accusing Spears of infidelity. (Spears does confirm in The Woman in Me that she made out with Wade Robson before their split.)
“I’ve been scorned. I’ve been pissed off. I wrote ‘Cry Me a River’ in two hours. I didn’t plan on writing it,” Timberlake wrote in his 2018 memoir, Hindsight & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me, about the song. “The feelings I had were so strong that I had to write it, and I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and, hopefully, relate to it. People heard me and they understood it because we’ve all been there.”
Spears, for her part, was initially “in shock” when she heard the breakup track and watched the music video. “I didn’t know what to say, what to do,” she told Rolling Stone in a 2003 profile. “That was the last thing I ever thought somebody might do. I was really shocked s—tless. But you live and you learn. I think it looks like such a desperate attempt, personally. But that was a great way to sell the record. He’s smart.”
With reporting by Sarah Jones
