Britney Spears. John Sciulli/Getty Images for Ketel One Family-Made Vodka
Britney Spears revealed in her The Woman in Me memoir that she briefly hooked up with choreographer Wade Robson in the middle of her relationship with then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake — but songwriter Annet Artani remembers the affair being much longer.
“She had written [Wade] a letter and left it in her makeup bag,” Artani, 47, claimed during an interview with TMZ on Friday, October 20. “A long, long letter. Like, 14 pages, and [was] basically trying to end it.”
She continued: “I don’t think it was [just] making out at a bar one night. I remember specifically hearing her say it was with Wade and it went on for quite a while. … My understanding, if you’re writing someone a 14-page letter, I would think it’s more than just, ‘We kissed one time.’”
Artani — who cowrote “Everytime,” which was inspired by Spears and Timberlake’s split in part — also claimed that Timberlake, 42, found the lengthy breakup note in the cosmetics case and confronted Spears about her fidelity. “He probably wanted to end it because he’s this young, handsome pop star who didn’t want to be tied down,” Artani speculated. “Here was an opportunity.”
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Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears’ once-dreamy teen romance turned messy after they broke up. Timberlake and Spears, who initially met on The All New Mickey Mouse Club in the early ‘90s, went their separate ways in 2002. The following year, Timberlake dropped his song “Cry Me a River,” where he appeared to recreate their breakup […]
Us Weekly confirmed earlier this month that Spears admitted to the indiscretion in her memoir, revealing that she danced and made out with Robson, now 41, at a Spanish bar when she was dating Timberlake. (According to Artani, Robson danced on tour with Spears and wrote songs with Timberlake.)
Spears claimed in the book passage that she and Timberlake “agreed to move past” the incident since she had been so “loyal” to the ‘NSync singer for so many years and “only had eyes for him.”
Robson has not publicly addressed any of the affair claims.
Spears and Timberlake, who met on the set of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in the early ‘90s, debuted their relationship in 1999. They split three years later in 2002 over reports of infidelity.
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One year later, Timberlake dropped his breakup ballad “Cry Me a River” and cast a Spears lookalike in the music video. In the footage, Timberlake acted out a scene where the model had cheated on him. Fans immediately speculated that the track was about Spears.
“I’ve been scorned. I’ve been pissed off. I wrote ‘Cry Me a River’ in two hours. I didn’t plan on writing it,” Timberlake later wrote in his 2018 memoir, Hindsight & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me, about the song. “The feelings I had were so strong that I had to write it, and I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and, hopefully, relate to it. People heard me and they understood it because we’ve all been there.”
Spears, who was notably upset when she first saw the video, also claimed in The Woman in Me that Timberlake cheated on her a “couple of times” during their romance.
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears at the 2000 MTV Music Video Awards. Dave Hogan/Getty Images
Timberlake, for his part, has not addressed any of the claims surrounding Spears’ book, with a source telling Us that he is “trying to distance himself” from the tell-all.
“It’s not something he’s focusing too much on in terms of anything she might discuss when it comes to their former relationship,” the insider said earlier this month. “Justin and Britney dated so long ago, and he has a whole different life now. He’s focused on his family, his career, and moving forward, and he would like to leave anything that happened in the past behind them.”
Timberlake married Jessica Biel in 2012 before welcoming sons Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3. Spears, for her part, shares two sons — Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17 — with ex-husband Kevin Federline. She is currently separated from Sam Asghari, who filed for divorce in August after 14 months of marriage.
Spears has since revealed that her book “was not [meant] to offend anyone,” according to a Friday Instagram note.
“That was me then … that is in the past!!!” she wrote, explaining that she has moved on with her life. “It’s a beautiful clean slate from here!!! “I am here to establish it that way for the rest of my entire life!!! Either way, that is the last of it and s–t happens. This is actually a book I didn’t know needed to be written, although some might be offended, it has given me closure on all things for a better future.”
Spears has since deactivated her Instagram.