Music producer Timbaland apologized following backlash he received for a comment he made telling singer Justin Timberlake to put a “muzzle” on former girlfriend and singer Britney Spears following the release of her new memoir “The Woman in Me.”
On Nov. 7, Timbaland, 51, went live on TikTok to apologize for his controversial statement.
“I apologize to the Britney fans, and her,” he said during the livestream. “Yes, ‘you know about respecting women? Hell yeah!”
The backlash came after Timbaland answered questions from the audience during a live interview with 9th Wonder at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C, on Oct. 29, according to Billboard.
During the interview, he was asked about Timberlake’s 2002 hit “Cry Me a River” which Timbaland co-wrote and co-produced, making headlines again following the release of Spears’ explosive new memoir.
@breatheheavycom After facing immense backlash for his gross comments about Britney Spears, Timbaland offered an apology. Do you accept his apology, Britney Army? #britneyspears ♬ original sound – BreatheHeavy
“She going crazy, right? I wanted to call and say, ‘JT, you gotta put a muzzle on that girl,” Timbaland responded.
In her memoir, released on Oct. 24, Spears, 41, claimed the song, which was about a “woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain,” turned her into a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy” due to its media attention,” via Billboard.
According to People, the pop star also revealed that she had an abortion after a “surprise pregnancy” with the former *NYSNC bandmate, 42, whom she dated for three years.
“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,” Spears wrote.
She added, “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.”
“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,” Spears said of her regret over not keeping her baby.