The first extracts from Britney Spears’ highly anticipated memoir The Woman in Me have been published by People magazine, ahead of the book's release later in the month. In these, Spears opens up about the abuse and cruelty she allegedly experienced during the conservatorship, which she was placed under between 2008 and 2021, and an abortion she reportedly had while dating Justin Timberlake. She has kept the news of this abortion a secret for over twenty years.
Britney Spears has bravely shared her story, will Justin Timberlake do the same? At the time, there was a misogynistic and disgusting culture that surrounded Spears, one which simultaneously sexualised her from a young age but shamed her for any sexual autonomy and projected an expectation of purity onto her. Spears, during this era, had publicly said she was “saving herself” for marriage before having sex. Timberlake, after their breakup, went on to claim they had sex.