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A lot of attention has been paid this week to Britney Spears' bombshell revelation from her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me that she and Justin Timberlake decided to get an abortion when she became pregnant during their relationship.
The media has been anxiously awaiting a reaction from Justin Timberlake to the news going public, and now People is quoting an inside source from his camp with an exclusive report.
The source told People that Timberlake, 42, is focused on his family with wife Jessica Biel and professional pursuits, including the *NSYNC reunion and his upcoming Trolls movie.
“He’s happy at home with Jess and their kids and he’s focusing on new music,” the insider revealed. “He’s in such a great place.”
He may be in a great place but the verdict is still out on how Timberlake's fans are reacting to the revelation. Spears writes in her book, due out on October 24, of the pregnancy being “a surprise” but not “a tragedy” since she was in love with Timberlake and hoped to eventually have a family with him.
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” Spears wrote. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young.”
Spears added that she would have chosen to have the baby, but “Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father.”
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The controversy is sure to stir up debate in the culture wars, with abortion — always a hot button topic — made even more so last year after the U.S. Supreme Court shockingly overturned the verdict of Roe V. Wade, thus ending a woman's federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Timberlake himself has yet to publicly address the issue, although he did speak up in the post-MeToo era concerning his treatment of women such as Janet Jackson and Britney Spears. In February 2021, on the heels of the documentary Framing Britney Spears coming out, Timberlake wrote on Instagram in a post dedicated to Janet Jackson that he was “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 … 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,” Timberlake wrote.
The Britney Spears apology most likely concerned his boasting about sleeping with Spears on a radio show after their breakup. Their relationship began when they were both teenagers and they were frequently hounded by the media about the status of their virginity during that time. Timberlake's on-air braggadocio was seen as a violation of Spears' privacy and trust.
The apology to Janet Jackson centered on his role in the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show of 2004, in which Timberlake inadvertently exposed Jackson’s nipple during the broadcast. The fallout was much worse for Jackson than Timberlake, even though both were equally involved in the widely viewed public incident.
Justin Timberlake‘s career has had some setbacks of late — which is rumored to be the reason for his willingness to agree to an *NSYNC reunion at this time — so it will be interesting to see how these personal revelations affect his comeback attempt.
