Inside Justin Timberlake’s boozy spiral: Singer started ‘drinking more’ to cope with Britney Spears scandal ahead of his tour, insiders say – as they reveal major red flags that led to Sag Harbor DWI arrest

Justin Timberlake has been drinking more to ‘escape’ the backlash over Britney Spears’ memoir and mounting pressure to stay in the charts, with insiders claiming he has arrived at tour rehearsals smelling of booze on more than one occasion.

The 43-year-old singer was arrested for driving under the influence after having a drink at Sag Harbor’s American Hotel in New York on Monday night. Photos showed him looking shocked as he was led in handcuffs to court from the Hamptons police station the next morning. .

Justin was stopped shortly after midnight when he blew past a stop sign in his BMW X7 – after having already been spotted by officers crossing the road, according to reports.

The father-of-two performed a field sobriety test and was asked to take a breathalyzer test, which he refused.

Insiders claim the incident should serve as a wake-up call for the singer who turned to alcohol to cope with the explosive accusations 42-year-old Britney had made against him, including that he had urged her to have an affair in the early 2000s to have an abortion.

Furthermore, sources claim he has succumbed to the increasing pressure to compete with popular artists like Harry Styles – and has struggled with the lackluster performance of his latest album, Everything I Thought It Was, which failed to reach the charts. its release in March.

“Justin has been stressed out over the Britney drama that happened late last year and some of us noticed he was drinking more,” a source told DailyMail.com exclusively.

“He is by no means an alcoholic, but he was advised to curb his drinking so he could have a clear head when dealing with public controversy, as he was accused of mishandling Britney and Janet Jackson’s reaction.”

Justin, who has previously confessed to secretly being ‘plastered’ and doing ‘a fair share of drugs’, had been out for dinner with friends before his arrest on Monday.

The Sexy Back singer was charged with DWI and also charged with disregarding a stop sign and failure to stay in his lane. He is due in court on July 26 after being released without bail.

Justin’s driving license in New York State was suspended for refusing the breath test.

The source continued: “The guys who were there last night didn’t want him to drive because they had been drinking, but they were ignored.

‘He is now cooperating and working with his lawyer Edward [Burke, Jr.] to help him work through it. His friends have been wanting him to drop the booze for a while, so this is a bit of a wake-up call.

‘The pressure of having to compete with artists like Harry Styles and Drake affects him and his songs [album sales] being lower definitely bothers him.

“We’ve all been feeling this for a while, and it’s affected his writing process on his last few records.”

A second insider echoed the concerns, claiming Justin’s latest alcohol incident stems from a need to “escape” after poor album sales.

“It’s hard to say why someone drinks, but if it has to do with where they are in their life right now, it makes sense to say they need to escape,” they said.

‘This will probably be his last successful tour and he is aware of that. He has a wife and two young children at home.

“He’s not super happy with the sales of his albums, but no one at the label has really done that. Everyone expected so much better.”

A third source claimed that his drinking habits are well known to those closest to him.

“It’s no secret that Justin drinks, and the dancers know this better than anyone,” they said. ‘He has come to rehearsals several times smelling of alcohol.’

The pop star has two shows in Chicago later this week as part of his Forget Tomorrow world tour, followed by back-to-back nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City next week.

The source said he often “celebrates a good show by getting drunk” but can also get “flirty” – with his wife Jessica Biel going out for a night to “babysit” him.

“When he drinks, he gets super flirty, and Jessica has to babysit him,” they continued. ‘She has been out with the crew several times.

‘He has blamed alcohol for past behaviour, including when he was caught ‘hand in hand’ with Alisha [Wainwright].’

In 2019, Justin claimed he drank “way too much” after photos emerged of him holding hands with his Palmer co-star Alisha at a New Orleans bar.

He later issued a public apology saying that he “showed a strong error of judgment,” before insisting that “nothing happened between me and my co-star.”

“I drank way too much that night and I regret my behavior,” he said. ‘I should have known better. This is not the example I want to set for my son.”

In October, Justin suffered a shock when Britney made multiple accusations against him in her memoir The Woman In Me, including criticizing his 2002 song Cry Me a River for how it made her look.

Justin and Britney dated from 1999 to 2002 and when they broke up, his career took off, with his albums being promoted under the narrative that they broke his heart.

He even used a Britney lookalike in the music video for Cry Me A River and she was vilified for their breakup.

Looking back on the breakup, she wrote about how she felt voiceless and “felt there was no way to tell at the time [her] side of the story,” because he made her look like a “whore who broke the heart of America’s golden boy.”

“I don’t think Justin realized the power he had to shame me,” she wrote. “I don’t think he understands it to this day.”

The Toxic hitmaker also described the ‘painful’ decision to end her pregnancy after falling pregnant in late 2000, when the pair were both 19.

The star claimed that while she wanted the baby and “dreamed of a family” with Justin, he “wasn’t ready” for the responsibilities of parenthood and felt the couple was too young.

She wrote: ‘It was a surprise, but for me it was not a tragedy. I loved Justin so much…

“He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”

In January, Britney apologized to Justin for the comments, insisting she was “deeply sorry.”

In March, he suffered another blow following the release of his sixth studio album, Everything I Thought It Was.

Despite receiving mixed reviews, the album was not a major success, debuting at number four on the US Billboard 200, with only 67,000 album-equivalent units, calculated from 31.13 million on-demand streams and 41,000 pure album copies .

His previous four solo studio albums all topped the charts, while his debut Justified reached number two.