Justin Timberlake refuses to stop performing Cry Me A River despite explosive claims in ex Britney Spears’ memoir: ‘F*** that’
Justin Timberlake doesn’t seem to care what Britney Spears has to say about him and their relationship in her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me.
A video clip has surfaced X (formerly known as Twitter) from the Sexy/Back singer, 42, who performed the 2002 song about his divorce from the Spears, Cry Me a River, at Dave Chappelle’s birthday party in August.
Before starting the song, he told the crowd, “They said they couldn’t do this song anymore.” F*** that!’
Britney, 41, and Justin started dating in 1999 and split in 2002 amid allegations of a cheating scandal that followed them for years.
The lyrics of Cry Me a River also describe deception: ‘You don’t have to say what you did / I already know, I heard that from him / Now there’s just no chance / For you and me.’
Sexy/Back: Justin Timberlake doesn’t seem to care what Britney Spears has to say about him and their relationship in her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me
Denim duo: A video has surfaced of the Sexy/Back singer, 42, singing the 2002 song about his breakup with the Circus singer, 41, Cry Me a River at Dave Chappelle’s birthday party in August
Justin even went so far as to hire a Britney look-alike for the song’s music video.
When the song premiered in 2002, Justin warned Britney about releasing a “controversial” video, which she revealed in an interview with Rolling stone in 2003.
‘I think I was in shock, to be honest. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. That was the last thing I ever thought anyone would do. I was really shocked. But you live and you learn.
‘He got what he wanted. Personally, I think it’s a desperate attempt. But that was a great way to sell the record. He’s smart,” she told the outlet at the time.
Writing about that period in her memoir, the Toxic singer describes the video as “a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain.”
She went on to write that the media attention the video received turned her into a “whore who broke the heart of America’s golden boy,” when in fact she was “comatose in Louisiana” nursing a broken heart while Timberlake “ran around happily.” Hollywood,’ Variety reported.
While Britney has taken the heat and was assumed to be the one who cheated on Justin, he actually cheated on her more than once, she claims in her memoir.
The Oops!…I Did It Again singer wrote that the What Goes Around Comes Around hitmaker was photographed in London in 2000 with “one of the girls from All Saints” and also bragged to one of her backup dancers about a girl who he was hooked with in Las Vegas.
Timberlake hasn’t been kind when it comes to mending his relationship with Spears over the years.
During a 2003 interview with Barbara Walters on 20/20, the legendary journalist asked him if Britney had “kept her promise to wait to have sex until marriage.” Justin immediately burst out laughing.
A few years later, in 2006, he told journalist Robert Haskell, “If I were to write an article about (Britney), I wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to write everything nasty about her.”
Don’t back down: Before starting the song, he told the crowd, “They told them not to do this song anymore.” F-k that!’
Artists: Britney and Justin started dating in 1999 and broke up in 2002 amid allegations of a cheating scandal that haunted them for years
Commentary: When the song premiered in 2002, Justin warned Britney that he was releasing a “controversial” video, which she revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2003.
Bad karma: ‘I think I was in shock, to be honest. I didn’t know what to say, what to do. That was the last thing I ever thought anyone would do. I was really shocked. But you live and you learn,” she said
In February 2021, the It’s Gonna Be Me singer posted a lengthy Instagram post apologizing for things he had said about Spears in the past.
It read in part: “I deeply regret 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 continued, “I understand that in these moments and many others, I have failed and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”
Ahead of the release of her memoir, Britney came clean and admitted to having an affair with choreographer Wade Robson while she was dating Timberlake.