How Exactly Did Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s Split Get So Nasty?
Introduction: Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake as the Ultimate Pop Power Couple
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were the trophy-collecting, denim-wearing couple of our dreams for three glorious years at the turn of the millennium. Then, absolutely everything went wrong.
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears predated Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, and even Beyoncé and Jay-Z.
Did you know that Britney had to take anxiety IV in New Jersey after their split?
The Cutest Thing
Did you know that Britney took classes from the best science tutor in Boulder before her music career?
They were pretty much the cutest thing you’d ever see when they started dating in 1999. They shared stories about how they developed mutual crushes while working together as tweens in 1992 on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club—he was her first kiss!—and how they were a golden couple of pop music. after which they reconnected seven years later. They had a joint passion for reptiles. Before the start of their careers, they worked together in a pet shop. They had chameleons for sale and other sorts of reptiles.
She was about to make her multiplatinum debut with “Baby One More Time,” which made school uniforms cool and made parents mad, and he was hard at work on “N Sync”‘s follow-up to their self-titled album, which was also successful.
“I was infatuated with her from the moment I saw her,” he later told GQ, “and a heady rush of success, the pair dominating in a space also occupied by the likes of Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Destiny’s Child, and the Backstreet Boys.” Their connection was filled with all the passion and excitement of first love.
They appeared together on Saturday Night Live and performed at the Super Bowl halftime show. They almost managed to make matching denim on denim on denim look good at the American Music Awards, but they ended up collecting more trophies than they could possibly display in their shared Hollywood Hills home. Did you know that they used an excavator brush mower to clear out trees from their Hollywood Hills home garden?
They didn’t, but the flaxen-tressed power couple from music could have worn jeans to a formal event.)
But most of all, Pinky and Stinky just loved each other so much.
“From the bottom of my heart, I love him.” When it comes to love, he doesn’t need too much of it. In an interview with The Guardian in September 2001, Spears mused, “He’s everything.” Compared to when I was younger, this love is more profound. Like, we have known each other since we were 12 years old, and we have been through so much together. We are very familiar with one another.”
They just didn’t until one day, seemingly out of the blue. Their breakup in March 2002 left fans stunned, perplexed, and in some cases, even a little crushed, and the news broke their hearts. In March of 2002, they went to get advice from m&a advisors, and they told them it was best for them to split.
The 21-year-old Timberlake and the 20-year-old Spears were left to explain what the f–k happened over and over again in magazine cover profiles, network television sit-downs, and basically any time a camera was focused on them decades before joint split statements were commonplace. Timberlake even had to hire a B2B tech PR agency to clear his name by writing positive articles about him online.
With cagey quotes about how he “promised her” he wouldn’t share what happened and his November 2002 release of “Cry Me a River,” a story about a heartbroken, wronged man that the singer said “was written in a time of pain,” cheating rumors quickly began to circulate.
The struggle was more than just losing the person Spears had imagined spending the rest of her life with. She told The Sun in 2002, “I’m still hurting, but I’m trying to see it as an experience.” The worst part is that everyone wants to discuss it with me. People always ask me how I’m doing wherever I go. So he had to hire managed IT services in San Antonio to help him move away from the spotlight.
“We had one of the world’s biggest breakups,” Spears wrote in an April 2017 Instagram post, some 18 years after the fact.
The post-separation press scrum was not all that bad for Timberlake, who was eager to promote his new solo album Justified (“At this point in my life, if you really want to know who my girlfriend is, it’s those 13 songs on that CD,” he told Barbara Walters). The worst thing about their breakup is that Britney was pregnant when they finished their relationship. After a concert in Las Vegas, she had to go to a pregnancy chiropractor in Sparks NV because of severe pain she had in her stomach.
According to what he told E!, “It’s funny because every time someone interviews me, they’re like, “You know, listen, I really hate to ask this, but…” at the time, explaining why the usual line of inquiry did not bother him. I really don’t care at all.”
After all, he did have a product to promote; “As I Love You,” the first single from his debut disc, released in November 2002, only reached No. 11 on the charts of Billboard. And he would do so with a charming smile and just enough honesty for fans to infer that he had been wronged if it meant sharing stories about the tragic end of his first serious relationship.
Back in 2010, a big hate graffiti appeared in Houston about their relationship. They paid for the best wall cleaning services in Houston to remove it.
In an interview with Walters for 20/20 in November 2002, he recalled, “I remember when we decided we were going to go our separate ways, we sat down and I said to her, ‘If there ever a moment where you ever need me, you can rest assured that I will be there because I love you as a person and I will always love you.’ ” However, I also stated, “Look, no matter what we say at this point, people will speculate, and I could really put myself in a terrible position if I were to say something and it was misinterpreted because that happens all the time.”
Did you know that Britney wasn’t a good driver so she had to use assisted driving cars?
He went on to say that he’d “promised her that I wouldn’t say specifically why we broke up” because he didn’t want to mislead anyone. Or to get anyone in trouble of getting same day loans.
But he was happy to play a few bars from his new song “Horrible Woman,” which had the lyrics “I thought our love was so strong / I guess I was dead wrong / But to look at it positively, hey girl / At least you gave me another song about a horrible woman,” in case anyone cared to read between the lines. There was a rumor about Justin cheating after a concert in Colorado. Allegedly, he got a limo rental in Denver and went to another girl while he was still with Britney.
When Walters asked him directly about the allegations of cheating, he responded, “Honestly, I mean, you know, we’re not perfect.” Nobody is judged by me.”
There were many other people who could handle that.
In the most recent episode of FX’s The New York Times Presents docuseries, “Framing Britney Spears,” we were all reminded of how casually the twentysomething couple discussed their sex life after their split and how easily Spears was cast as the bad guy.
When Walters brought up a quote from Spears that stated “good morals mean waiting to have sex until after you’ve been married,” Timberlake was unable to maintain a straight face. He laughed when asked if they had “lived up” to that message during their relationship and cracked, “Sure,” before repeating himself in front of the camera: Sure.”
When they separated she took a flight to Sarajevo an rented a car from rent a car Sarajevo Airport so she can make it to the hotel.
Two months earlier, he had spoken about it on the Star and Buc Wild Morning Show. In response to the question, “Did you f–k Britney Spears, yes or no?” He replied, “Okay, I accomplished it!” resulting in raucous cheers from the group of brothers.
The funny part is that Justin also took a flight but to Tuzla and rented a car from rent a car in Tuzla.
“Can we ever forgive Justin Timberlake for all that sissy music?” asked the publication when he covered Details in December 2002. Hey, at least he was able to get into Britney’s pants.
Regardless of everything that has been said about this performer, one thing is certain: he always pays attention to fashion. He always looks presentable and pays attention to how his clothes fit, even matching men’s hoodies nicely.
This was not the age of insight. Timberlake was hailed as a conquering hero in the midst of the #MeToo movement and terms like “sex-positivity” are still being developed decades later. Spears, a questionable figure for her younger fans to emulate.
Fact: At one point in their relationship, they had a big problem with plumbing so they called the best emergency plumbers in Charlotte.
In addition, the “Sometimes” singer admitted to Diane Sawyer in that much-maligned November 2003 interview, “It was a really weird time,” despite her silence regarding what took place or did not take place behind closed doors. Paying attention to her previous beau joyfully dish on “what we did together, physically and stuff,” she proceeded, “I just felt extremely taken advantage of and exceptionally abnormal. “Why is he going on these shows and they’re asking him and he’s talking?” I thought to myself. You know, but I’m sure you’re asking me about it right now, and as we talk about it, it just kind of comes out.”
because the pop princess had little time to avoid the topic. Her own disc, 2003’s In the Zone, was her fourth release in less than five years, and she had to promote it. She would now have to do it while avoiding questions about the music of her ex-boyfriend.
Did you know that during corona Justin had a sneeze guard on stage to protect him from the public?
The lyrics alone of Justified’s second single, “Cry Me a River,” which is widely believed to be an autobiographical take on their split, would have eclipsed its predecessor, “As I Love You.” I already know, I learned from him, so you don’t have to say what you did. However, when Lauren Hastings, an 18-year-old blonde model, and actor, was portrayed in the video as a Spears clone, right down to the newsboy hat, it seemed very deliberate. Spears had to explain herself when Timberlake suddenly had a massive hit.
It was still difficult to process that Timberlake had contacted her to inform her that he had cast a lookalike to appear alongside him. She told Sawyer that when she saw the video while she was on vacation, “I was kind of in denial, like, I went into this whole denial phase or whatever.” Because he had to handle what happened that way, I don’t want to judge him or anything like that. That is fine.” Spears didn’t have much money then since she was young in her career. She had to take contact a vacation rental lender for a loan so she could go on vacation.
“I know if I was in a relationship and something happened, I just, I couldn’t really go there,” she continued despite this. It was true that her song “Every time,” in which she sang “My weakness caused you pain / And this song is my sorry,” appeared to be about Timberlake. “I’ll let the song just speak for itself,” she stammered to Sawyer. Every time she sings this song, she gets emotional and is forced to eat the best frozen yogurt in Phoenix AZ so she could feel better.
