Timbaland Apologizes After Saying Justin Timberlake Should Have ‘Put a Muzzle’ on Britney Spears

Timbaland has apologized after saying that Justin Timberlake should have “put a muzzle” on Britney Spears. The music producer sparked outrage this week when a video went viral, showing him sharing his thoughts on the revelations about Spears and Timberlake’s relationship from the pop diva’s new memoir, The Woman in Me. “She going crazy, right?” Timbaland said in a clip shared online. “I wanted to call and say, ‘JT, man, you gotta put a muzzle on that girl.’”

Now, NBC News reports that the “Cry Me A River” producer has backtracked on his comments and issued an apology. Taking to TikTok Live, Timbaland said, “I apologize to the Britney fans and her.” Reading a comment from a viewer, he added, “Yes, ‘you know about respecting women?’ Hell yeah.” In a clip posted on X, Timbaland also noted that Spears has the right to “speak,” adding, “Who am I to tell you what not to speak.” He also firmly said, “I was wrong for saying that.

Spears’ memoir certainly did not paint Timberlake in a flattering light. From a story about his choice of vernacular when once approaching R&B singer Ginuwine to a claim that she got pregnant while they were together but chose to have an abortion because Timberlake “definitely wasn’t happy” about the situation. While the NSYNC singer has not publicly opened up about the stories in Spears’ book, one person did come out to criticize how their connection to Spears was addressed.

Star Jackson — who was previously married to Spears’s ex-husband Kevin Federline — called out the “Toxic” singer over what she asserts are some inaccuracies in Spears’ memoir. Jackson and Federline had been together for about two years and shared a child when Federline began dating Spears. Shortly after they met, Jackson gave birth to her second child with Federline. In her book, Spears writes of her early relationship with Federline, “I was living in a bubble and I didn’t have a lot of good, close friends to confide in and get advice from. I had no idea until after we’d been together for a while and someone told me, ‘You know he has a new baby, right?’”

However, Jackson told the Daily Mail that this is not her recollection of the event. “When Kevin met Britney we had three kids [Federline was stepfather to her two eldest children and they had a daughter, Kori, together] and one on the way and we were living in a six-bedroom house in Orange County, California. One day, when I had bad morning sickness and was about six months pregnant, Kevin had an audition for a coke commercial or something in LA… then I didn’t hear from him for three days.” 

Jackson went on to reveal, “I later found out they had met at a club on the first night, when he went out with his friends.” Jackson went on to allege that Spears was even present at the hospital when she was giving birth to her and Federline’s second child. Afterward, she says that Federline went back to Spears’ home and left her alone at the hospital.