Justin Timberlake Is Finally Getting Called Out For His Terrible Mistreatment Of Britney Spears

Since Framing Britney Spears dropped, all anyone can focus on is the pop star and how terribly she was treated by the world.

The New York Times documentary follows Britney Spears career — from her young start through the Mickey Mouse Club, her very public break-ups and break-downs, and ultimately how the media failed her time and time again — before focusing in on the #FreeBritney movement.

However, one major part of Britney’s early career that’s hard to ignore was her very public relationship, and break-up, with Justin Timberlake.

Despite having only dated for three years, when the power-couple broke up it seemed it was all the media could talk about. This was fuelled by two major moments: The ‘Cry Me A River’ music video and Justin never shutting up about the pair having sex.

beyond showing how impossibly horrible “the media” was to britney spears in the 00s i’m glad that the britney doc begins to reckon with the idea of how much of justin timberlake’s career in the aughts came at the expense of women like britney and janet jackson

— maya kosoff (@mekosoff) February 7, 2021

After the pair broke up in 2002, Justin released the ‘Cry Me A River’ video that featured a woman who suspiciously looked a whole lot like Britney and lyrics that implied the woman in the song had cheated. But even though Justin constantly “denied” that the song or video was about Britney, he helped fuel the narrative, that Britney Spears had been unfaithful in real life, to the world.

This mindset is seen throughout Britney Spears’ own very uncomfortable interview with Diane Sawyer from 2003, which is also featured in the documentary. During this interview, Britney is not only blamed for “breaking [Justin’s] heart” and for causing “so much pain, so much suffering”, but is told that she had become a “bad example for kids” and “disappointed a lot of mothers in this country”, thanks to her new sexualised image after the couple’s relationship.

As Wesley Morris, a NYT critic explained in the documentary, “the way that people treated her, to be very high school about it, was like [Britney Spears] was the school slut and he was the quarterback.”

Once Justin Timberlake had effectively helped tarnish Britney Spears name and reputation with cryptic clues about her possible infidelity, he then kept banging on about having sex with the pop star.

This was a problem because up until she got into a relationship with Justin Timberlake, Britney had publicly shared that she was saving herself until marriage. But once the pair broke up, Justin begun to brag about having sex with Britney Spears.

For example, during his infamous Barbara Walters interview, Justin Timberlake bursts out laughing when asked if Britney had “kept her promise to wait until marriage”. And most notably, instead of just easily avoiding the topic during a radio interview when talk of Britney’s virginity came up, Justin decided to just directly answer the question on everyone’s lips: “Did you fuck Britney Spears?”

“Okay, I did it,” he proudly shared.

Now, because of how Framing Britney Spears has shone new light on the struggles Britney faced throughout the entirety of her career, people online are rallying behind the singer.

If you take a look at the comment section under any of Justin Timberlake’s Instagram posts, they’re flooded with messages demanding that Justin apologise for what he did to Britney. But between simple messages that read “apologise” and a sea of snake and pig emojis, some fans have even gone so far to share exactly why the long-overdue apology is necessary.

“You should really reflect on what you did with Britney. You mocked and degraded Britney after your breakup. You relentlessly slut-shamed her, and you called her a wannabe Madonna. You built your solo career off of controversy and Britney-bashing,” one comment explained.

“You need to publicly apologise to Britney and advocate for her freedom, since you capitalised on villainizing her”.

all the comments on justin timberlake's instagram lmfaoooo #FreeBritney pic.twitter.com/STSbB4HW5Q

— joseph ? (@heIIobritney) February 9, 2021

GUESS WHO’S CANCELLED: Justin Timberlake’s Instagram flooded with comments asking him to publicly apologize to Britney Spears following “Framing Britney Spears” documentary. The documentary described how Justin spun narrative that blamed Britney for end of their relationship. pic.twitter.com/uC43Bt7M3a

— Def Noodles (@defnoodles) February 9, 2021

But beyond getting behind the #FreeBritney movement, fans are now also using the opportunity to demand that Justin Timberlake address all the pain he inflicted on Janet Jackson, too.

Famously, Justin Timberlake revealed one of Janet Jackson’s breasts during her Super Bowl halftime show in 2004. Yet despite being mostly responsible for the unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, Justin got off relatively scot-free while Janet’s career suffered immensely.

Instead of taking any accountability for his part in the fiasco, Justin Timberlake claimed that he was “completely shocked and appalled” and “embarrassed” by the whole thing, and, as a result, was able to have himself a very successful solo career, while Janet’s basically ended.

So it really is beautiful to see these horribly mistreated women finally get some well-deserved justice.

The ‘Framing Britney Spears’ documentary is currently exclusively only available on Hulu.