Britney Spears Reveals She Had An Abortion While Dating Justin Timberlake

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were just 12 years old when they first met on the set of The Mickey Mouse Club in 1992. The pair bonded and eventually started dating in 1999. Their relationship became tabloid fodder for several years, and it seemed like there was nothing more to learn about their time together. Apparently that is not the case at all. In her new memoir The Woman In Me, Spears reveals that she had an abortion while she was with Justin Timberlake because he “didn’t want to be a father.”

In an excerpt published by People on Oct. 17, the singer reveals in her book that she found out she was pregnant with Timberlake’s baby and the couple decided to have an abortion. “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,” Spears writes. “But 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.”

“If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” Spears continues. “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”

Romper’s request for comment from Timberlake’s representatives was not immediately returned.

Spears and Timberlake starting dating when they were 17 and 18 years old respectively in 1999, breaking up three years later in 2002 when they were 20 and 21 years old. The end of their relationship saw Spears vilified in the media. In 2002, Timberlake sat down for an interview with Barbara Walters and appeared to accuse Spears of cheating on him. He even sat down at the piano to sing a song called “Horrible Woman” during that interview after discussing Spears, and famously recorded the “Cry Me A River” video in 2002 with a Britney Spears look-alike and recreated their breakup.

Spears was later prodded herself about the cheating allegations by Diane Sawyer in a 2003 interview that was widely criticized in the wake of a 2021 New York Times documentary for being sexist and one-sided. Timberlake apologized to Spears for his past behavior after the documentary was released, admitting that he “benefited from a system that condones misogyny.”

Both Spears and Timberlake went on to be parents; Spears to 18-year-old son Jayden and 16-year-old son Sean Preston with ex-husband Kevin Federline and Timberlake to 8-year-old son Silas and 2-year-old son Phinneas with wife Jessica Biel.

Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman In Me, which promises to be full of revelations, will be available everywhere on Oct. 24.