A New Britney Spears Documentary Has Fans Mad at Justin Timberlake All Over Again
Have you watched the new Britney Spears documentary yet? Titled Framing Britney Spears, the film dives deep into the life of the pop star, giving fans an inside look at everything from her ascent to superstardom to her 2007 breakdown and the conservatorship that sparked the #FreeBritney movement.
Naturally, Spears’s relationship with Justin Timberlake came up too. The film particularly focuses on Timberlake’s handling of their split and how Spears was treated in the media after the infamous breakup. And while lots of the information was already out there, seeing it all put together has fans upset all over again.
How Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake met and started dating
According to The Things, Spears and Timberlake met as kids on The Mickey Mouse Club. However, it wasn’t until years later when their relationship turned romantic.
The singers began dating in 1999 and quickly became one of the world’s most popular teen couples. They had plenty of memorable moments throughout their relationship, including at the 2001 American Music Awards, where Spears and Timberlake both wore all-denim outfits. But by the following year, they had called it quits.
Why Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake broke up
Neither of them ever really went into detail about the reasons they broke up, but there were widespread rumors that the split came after Spears cheated with choreographer Wade Robson.
“The breakup was absolutely heartbreaking for me,” Timberlake said in a subsequent interview with The Telegraph (via The Sun).
Afterward, he released “Cry Me a River” — a song widely believed to be about Spears. A Britney lookalike even starred in the video.
The new documentary revisits their breakup
In the documentary, different sources discussed the split and how Spears was painted as the bad guy, even though the reasons behind the split were never confirmed.
“People treated her like she was the school slut and he was the quarterback,” claimed former MTV VJ Dave Holmes. “He essentially weaponized the video for one of his singles to incriminate her.”
In addition to the video, the film also revisits some of the things Timberlake said in the press after their breakup, including when he claimed in a radio interview that they’d had sex. (Spears had previously said she was a virgin and wanted to wait until she was married.)
As his heartbreak crusade continued, Spears caught all the blame for the split, the film explains, with Diane Sawyer even asking her in a 2003 interview what she did.
“[Britney’s] image was being painted as, ‘Oh, what did you do to cause the breakup? You must have done something, not him,'” explained Kevin Tancharoen, Spears’s former backup dancer and tour director.
After watching the film, fans are pissed at Justin Timberlake
Taking to websites such as Twitter, many viewers blasted Timberlake for his handling of their breakup.
“i’m watching the britney speaks documentary and nobody ever talks about much of a piece of sh*t justin timberlake is,” one person tweeted.
At the same time, someone else said, “Y’all I just watched the documentary on Hulu about Britney Spears and holy sh*t! The questions she would get asked, the paparazzi, Justin Timberlake being a sleaze bag, her father… like my heart breaks.”
“It’s so sad they made it like Britney Spears was the problem when it was actually Justin Timberlake,” another fan said while a fourth person tweeted, “Justin Timberlake rightfully gets dragged for slut shaming Britney after their breakup in this NYT documentary.”
But there were also people who defended Timberlake.
When one viewer suggested he wouldn’t have been successful without Spears, one person who describes themselves as a fan of the “Toxic” singer said: “I agree their breakup helped make ONE song become successful but to say that Justin Timberlake wasn’t going to be successful without Britney Spears is a complete lie. Lol Just like Usher profited off of his break up with Chili. This is very common in the industry.”
A second person chimed in, “I get he should have apologized for things he said but sometimes if the two parties involved have no ill will, doesn’t mean we have to put ourselves between their issue.She has moved on.”
“The fact that ya’ll forget that celebrities are human and do the same dumb sh*t ya’ll did in your teen years/early 20’s. People out there ignoring that they both did messed up things to e a c h o t h e r. Britney literally posted herself dancing to Justin’s song days ago, looool,” said a third Twitter user.
So far, neither of them has directly commented on the response to the documentary.
