‘Woman in Me’ memoir: Britney Spears claims she had abortion while dating Justin Timberlake

Britney Spears has said she became pregnant with then boyfriend Justin Timberlake but had an abortion. The claim was made in her upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, describing it as a ‘painful experience’ that she has kept private for 20 years. According to People magazine which made the excerpts public, the 41-year-old pop icon claimed she had to abort the pregnancy when Justin, who then rose to fame with popular boyband *Nsync, said they weren’t ready to start a family.

She wrote: “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 continued: "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.” On her experience undergoing the abortion, she said: “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life."

Timberlake, 42, and Spears, 41, dated for three years in their late teens and early twenties, before ending their relationship in 2002. After the split, The ‘Womanizer’ singer went on to become a mother, welcoming two sons — Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17 — with her second husband, Kevin Federline. Ahead of the memoir’s publication, the *Nsync star is said to be “concerned” over what the singer would share about their time together. One source told US entertainment publication Page Six: “He’s very curious what she’ll reveal from their relationship. It’s eating him”.

Timberlake has yet to respond to the allegations.

Spears will release her much-anticipated memoir on October 24, through Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It will also be made available for preorder now via britneybook.com, Amazon, and other places where books are sold.