If you've been online at all in the last week or so, you're aware that Justin Timberlake's past behavior has been under re-examination.
The reason for all this revisited history? Britney Spears's forthcoming memoir The Woman in Me, which contains several bombshell revelations regarding her past relationship with Justin.
What's caused the most chatter thus far is Britney's revelation that she had an abortion during their relationship.
In the book, Britney describes the abortion as "one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life" and says that she had the procedure because Justin "didn't want to be a father."
"It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy," Britney writes about the pregnancy. "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," she also revealed. "He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young."
In the wake of these revelations, as well as in anticipation of more to come when the book sees official release, Justin's past — and present — behavior has been under fresh scrutiny.
Some have speculated that he or his team are employing bots to defend him online, while reports have suggested that he's keeping the book's contents out of sight and out of mind.
Almost as if on cue, a video has now resurfaced of Justin performing his 2002 smash single "Cry Me a River" at Dave Chappelle's birthday party earlier this year. You can see the clip here.
Why is this a big deal? Well, "Cry Me a River" is notoriously about Justin's breakup with Britney — which, btw, we now know was handled over text.
View this video on YouTube
The video includes not-so-subtle allusions to their relationship, using a Britney lookalike to suggest that she cheated on Justin — and in The Woman in Me, Britney says the clip framed her as "[The] harlot who’d broken the heart of America's golden boy."
So, in the video from Dave Chappelle's party, Justin is heard as saying, "Told me not to do this song no more...fuck that," before launching into "Cry Me a River."
"You can tell his notes app apology for Britney was so sincere in February 2021!" the person who shared the video wrote on Twitter (no, I'm not calling it X), referring to Justin's public apology toward Britney (as well as Janet Jackson) following the airing of the documentary Framing Britney Spears.
Naturally, other people online had reactions to this clip, too:
