We were already expecting a lot of juicy anecdotes in Britney Spears’ upcoming memoir The Woman in Me, but the juiciest of all might be the story of how the singer’s then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake got her pregnant, and the pair decided to have an abortion.
“Sources with direct knowledge of the book” told TMZ that Spears and Timberlake found out they were pregnant near the end of 2000, when they were both around 19 years old. Spears was raised in a conservative Christian household in the Bible Belt, and had just gone on the record saying she’d planned to stay abstinent until marriage, maintaining a carefully-crafted “good girl” image. Understandably, she was apparently “conflicted” about the decision whether or not to keep her child with Timberlake.
Spears wanted to be a mother, but after some “difficult, emotional discussions,” she and Timberlake concluded that it wasn’t the right time for either of them. Spears would have her first child, Sean Preston, in 2005, and she had Jayden James the following year.
The Woman in Me is out October 24th via Gallery Books, and pre-orders are ongoing. Spears began teasing the memoir after terminating her 13-year conservatorship in November 2021, and the book aims to highlight “the enduring power of music and love — and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms.” In another revealed excerpt, Spears spoke about how felt “infantilized” during the conservatorship.
Meanwhile, Timberlake just reunited with *NSYNC for “Better Place,” the boy band’s first song in over 20 years.
