Britney Spears recalls first kiss with Justin Timberlake and reveals unexpected Janet Jackson connection – years before infamous Super Bowl controversy
Britney Spears opens up about the moment she kissed her former flame Justin Timberlake for the first time in a new preview of her highly anticipated tell-all book.
The 41-year-old pop superstar will release her highly anticipated memoir, The Woman in Me, this month, documenting the rollercoaster ride of her life and career in her own words.
In the first excerpt, shared with People magazine, Britney discusses her early career on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in 1989 alongside the likes of Justin, Ryan Gosling and Christina Aguilera – and her first kiss with the SexyBack singer before they started dating in 1999.
The Crossroads star recalled, “Christina Aguilera and I were the younger kids and we shared a locker room. We looked up to the older kids – Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling and Tony Lucca, who I thought were so personable. And I quickly hooked up with a guy named Justin Timberlake.”
Britney Spears talks about the moment she kissed her former flame Justin Timberlake for the first time in her new memoir
The singer, pictured center, started her career in 1989 with The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside Justin (pictured left), Ryan Gosling and Christina Aguilera.
The pair shared a kiss while playing Truth or Dare during a sleepover with fellow Mickey Mouse club friends
Britney then described the first time the pair locked lips, revealing the music she remembered playing in the background: “(Once) at a sleepover we were playing Truth or Dare, and someone dared Justin to give me to kiss.
“There was a Janet Jackson song playing in the background as he leaned over and kissed me.”
Ironically, Justin, 42, has an enduring bond with Janet, 57, after the hitmaker accidentally showed the music icon’s chest to 140 million viewers during the 2004 Super Bowl.
The incident affected Janet’s career while Justin’s continued to rise, leading to backlash from the public who felt she had been treated unfairly. Justin released a belated apology in 2021.
He stated that he “deeply regrets the times in my life when my actions contributed to the problem, when I spoke out of turn, or did not stand up for what was right.”
He added that he understood that he “failed in these moments and many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”
He also apologized to Britney and claimed he had also ‘abandoned’ her in the aftermath of their 2002 split, with the singer accused of cheating on him.
Justin’s career soared thanks to songs and albums promoted under the narrative that she broke his heart while Britney found herself skewering.
Britney claimed a Janet Jackson song was playing in the background before Justin accidentally exposed the music icon’s chest to 140 million viewers during the 2004 Super Bowl
He even used a Britney lookalike in the music video for his 2002 hit Cry Me A River, causing her to be vilified for their breakup.
He is said to be ‘concerned’ about what her upcoming memoir will reveal about their past romance, with a source telling Page Six: “He is very curious to see what she will reveal about their relationship. It’s eating away at him.’
In Britney’s memoir, she will also discuss the 13-year conservatorship she was placed under by her father in 2008, something she said made her “feel sick.”
She wrote: ‘If I thought it was bad to have my body criticized in the press, it hurt even more from my own father. He repeatedly told me that I looked fat and that I should do something about it.
‘Feeling like you are never good enough is a crushing state of being for a child. He had instilled that message in me as a girl, and even after I had accomplished so much, he continued to do it with me.
‘I became a robot. But not just any robot – a kind of child robot. I had become so infantilized that I lost pieces of what made me feel like myself.’
The star concluded: ‘Thirteen years passed in which I felt like a shadow of myself. I think back now that my father and his associates had control over my body and my money for so long and it makes me sick…
“I didn’t deserve what my family did to me.”
Justin and Britney from 1999-2002 and were a beloved couple during their time together (photo 2001)
The couple split abruptly in 2002 and rumors soon emerged that she had cheated on her partner
The book will be released with an audio version narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Michelle Williams.
Britney recorded a small portion of the book and avoided telling chapters that discussed her family because the content was “too painful to retell.” TMZ recently reported.
In a statement to People Published on Friday, the Toxic hitmaker explained: ‘This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it.
‘Reliving it all was exciting, heartbreaking and emotional to say the least. For those reasons I will only read a small part of my audiobook.’
She then said, “I’m so grateful to the wonderful Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it.”
Michelle, 43, voiced her support for the singer, with the Brokeback Mountain star telling People: “I support Britney.”
It has been reported that only female stars were approached to record the audiobook the publisher originally wanted to bring in actress Reese Witherspoon, but she wasn’t “available.”
The Woman In Me and the audiobook will be released on October 24
Britney recently announced that her memoir, which takes its title from a lyric from her 2001 hit I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman, is the result of extensive therapy.
The Womanizer artist addressed her followers on Instagram, saying: ‘Alright guys, my book is coming out very, very soon.
‘I worked really hard on this book, I had a lot of therapy to finish this book, so you might as well like it. And if you don’t like it, that’s fine too.’
Britney is the third member of her family to release her own autobiography.
Her mother, Lynne, wrote Through The Storm: A Real Story of Fame And Family In A Tabloid World in 2008 and her younger sister, Jamie Lynn, published Things I Should Have Said last year.
The Woman In Me and its accompanying audiobook will be released on October 24.