Britney Spears Was 'Devastated' After Justin Timberlake Split

By Zoe Guy, a news writer who covers film, TV, music, and celebrities

Britney Spears is sharing intimate details of her relationship with Justin Timberlake in her upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, out October 24. The megastar writes in an excerpt that she had an abortion while dating Timberlake, choosing to end the pregnancy because he wasn’t ready for fatherhood at the time, according to an exclusive excerpt published by People. Spears and Timberlake dated publicly from 1999 to 2002. “It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy,” she writes of the pregnancy news. “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.” After discussing the matter with Timberlake, she learned he didn’t share her feelings. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” she continues. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.” In the end, the couple agreed on an abortion. “I don’t know if that was the right decision,” Spears recalls. “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”

Spears also went on the record about the end of her relationship with Timberlake in her memoir. Apparently, the R&B singer broke up with her over text message, leaving Spears “devastated,” according to the New York Times, who obtained a copy of the book ahead of its official release. In her eyes, Timberlake contributed to her negative media portrayal during the press tour for his debut solo album, Justified. “A woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain” in his “Cry Me a River” music video. To the public, she was a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.” In reality, Spears says, “I was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.” She fantasized about leaving show business behind.

The young star reached a “breaking point” after participating in an infamous Diane Sawyer interview. She said that her team coerced her into the 2003 prime-time special, during which Sawyer grilled her on what happened that caused Timberlake “so much pain.” “I felt like I had been exploited,” she writes, “set up in front of the whole world.”

This post has been updated throughout with additional information from The Woman in Me, out October 24.