The evidence that Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake are fighting again
Following Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears online lately feels a lot like taking a stroll into the 2000s, when the relationship between the two pop stars shattered in a heavily public breakup. Much of the internet seems to think the pair are once again in a war of words.
“I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily feuding, but there’s definitely some shady, backhanded comments being thrown back and forth, though never directly,” said Joshua Pingley, a Spears fan who runs an entertainment news TikTok account with more than 500,000 followers. He traced the spat back to the publication of Spears’s memoir last year.
In that book, “The Woman in Me,” Spears wrote she had an abortion because Timberlake didn’t want to be a father, and claimed that he broke up with her through text message in 2002. “Everyone felt very sorry for him. And it shamed me,” she wrote. “Anywhere I went, I could get booed. I would go to clubs and I would hear boos.”
That was more than enough to get Spears fans riled up about Timberlake, whose reputation had already taken a few knocks in recent years. A 2021 New York Times documentary, “Framing Britney Spears,” made a case that Timberlake weaponized his music against Spears and openly discussed his sexual relationship with her after their breakup. Timberlake apologized to Spears after the film released, but not everyone was satisfied.
So when Timberlake recently released his first single in five years, “Selfish,” about desired love, Spears fans were primed to hit back.
As the track began to chart, Spears fans started to promote a 2011 Spears song, also titled “Selfish.” The song rocketed up the charts, at one point topping not only Timberlake’s song on the U.S. iTunes charts but also Megan Thee Stallion’s “Hiss,” and Ben Shapiro and Tom MacDonald’s “Facts,” according to Billboard.
The internet hivemind seemed to be dragging the ex-couple back into the fray. Spears responded to the attention in a relatively gracious Instagram post.
