(LifeSiteNews) — Pop star Britney Spears reportedly aborted her unborn child while dating actor and singer Justin Timberlake decades ago, a decision she said was “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced.” Timberlake has not yet publicly confirmed or denied the report.
On Tuesday, PEOPLE reported that the troubled 41-year-old pop star became pregnant with Timberlake’s child when the two were dating more than 20 years ago from 1999 to 2002.
In a soon-to-be-released memoir cited by the magazine, Spears said the pregnancy “was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy.”
“I loved Justin so much,” she wrote. “I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.”
However, the celebrity claimed that Timberlake “definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy” and told her the couple “weren’t ready to have a baby” since they “were way too young.”
“Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father,” she said. Spears said she got an abortion, something she claimed she “never would have done” if the decision “had been left up to me alone.”
“To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life,” she said.
PEOPLE reached out to a representative for Timberlake but didn’t immediately receive a response.
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Live Action’s Lila Rose said on X the news of Spears’ alleged abortion was “heartbreaking.”
Commentators on social media have suggested the trauma from the alleged abortion may have played a role in Spears’ series of disturbing public breakdowns, which included shaving her head, barricading herself in a bathroom for three hours, and attacking media members with an umbrella.
Spears ultimately lost custody of her sons, Sean and Jayden (whom she had with ex-husband Kevin Federline), and was placed under a conservatorship by her father in 2008. Spears previously claimed she had been forced to wear an intrauterine device (IUD) during the conservatorship to prevent another pregnancy. The conservatorship ended in 2021 after a public statement and outcry from her supporters.
Social media users have also openly wondered whether Spears’ 2003 track “Everytime” may have been in reference to her aborted baby.
The song includes the lyrics: “I guess I need you, baby; and every time I see you in my dreams I see your face: it’s haunting me,” as well as: “Please, forgive me; my weakness caused you pain; And this song’s my sorry.” As The Daily Mail pointed out, the music video shows Spears standing in a hospital room as a woman welcomes a newborn baby. Spears is also shown being rushed into an ambulance as the music video nears its close.
It’s unclear whether the song or Spears’ public emotional episodes were connected to the alleged abortion.
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Spears’ comments concerning abortion come after her sister, Jamie, said in 2021 that she had been pressured to abort her daughter when she became pregnant at 16 but chose life instead.
Moreover, Live Action noted, research indicates that women getting abortions after being pressured from outside sources to do so is very common.
The pro-life outlet pointed out that “64% of women who have undergone an abortion did so due to pressure from parents, boyfriends, employers, and friends,” while further “research published by the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons reported that 73.8% of women with a history of abortion experienced ‘at least subtle forms of pressure’ to abort.”
Celebrity women have faced pressure to abort their children for decades. Film legends Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, and Marylin Monroe all reportedly aborted their babies to keep up their careers.