Britney Spears: I had abortion while dating Justin Timberlake

Extracts from pop singer's new memoir reveal effect of controversial conservatorship arrangement she eventually escaped, and termination of pregnancy

The first extracts from Britney Spears' highly anticipated memoir The Woman in Me have been published, documenting the cruelty she allegedly experienced during the unusual conservatorship arrangement she was placed under between 2008 and 2021, and an abortion she reportedly had while dating Justin Timberlake.

In the extracts published by People magazine in the US ahead of the book's publication on 24 October, Spears writes of the abortion: For me, [the pregnancy] wasn't a tragedy. 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. 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 ... I don't know if that was the right decision. 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." The couple dated between 1999 and 2002, when they were in their late teens and early 20s. Timberlake has not commented on Spears' account.