Justin Timberlake is not bringing sorry back.
The singer seemed to address his ex Britney Spears as he performed a gig in New York City yesterday. Taking to the stage, Justin Timberlake sang a medley of his old and new songs at the Irving Plaza event, but when it came to his biggest hit, Cry Me A River, he appeared to respond to Britney’s public apology from days earlier.
Britney had issued a public statement for comments she made about her ex-celebrity boyfriend in her memoir. Although, it doesn’t look like JT has accepted it, by the looks of this TikTok video.
When introducing his 2002 song, which was supposedly about his ex at the time shortly after their break up, he said: “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolute f*****g nobody”.
It comes days after the 42-year-old wrote on Instagram she wanted to apologize to people she wrote about in her best-selling autobiography. She indirectly appeared to be showing regret about Justin Timberlake as she uploaded a clip of the singer with Jimmy Fallon.
She wrote: “I wanna apologize for some of the things I wrote about in my book.
“If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about I am deeply sorry.”
Britney then gave JT a shout-out, praising him on his new music album. She wrote: “Also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘selfish’. It is so good and how come every time I see Justin and Jimmy together I laugh so hard?”
Timberlake’s new single dropped on Thursday, January 25. However, Britney fans teamed up to stream her song of the same name, from 2011, to keep her ex’s off the top spot. Both tracks were fighting for number one on the iTunes chart.
The celebrity couple dated between 1999 and 2022, and in her memoir, The Woman in Me, which was released last October, she claimed she had an abortion.
Britney wrote when she found out she became pregnant with his child: “It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
She added: “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Justin Timberlake responded to her memoir with a written statement, also apologizing to Janet Jackson after their Super Bowl outfit scandal that occurred 20 years ago. Although the singer did not comment on individual claims in the book.
He said: “I’ve seen the messages, tags, comments and concerns and I want to respond. I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right.
“I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefit from a system that condones misogyny and racism.
“I specifically want to apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson both individually, because I care for and respect these women and I know I failed.”
