Article content
Britney Spears describes her brief fling with Colin Farrell more than 20 years ago as “a two-week brawl” in her upcoming memoir.
Advertisement 2
Article content
In the passage, published by Time, Spears says she met Farrell after they were introduced by a “club promoter friend” following her breakup with Justin Timberlake.
Article content
They hit it off when she visited him on the set of his 2003 movie S.W.A.T. and the Toxic singer, who was 26 at the time, said she tried to convince herself it was “not a big deal.”
“As I had before when I’d felt too attached to a man, I tried to convince myself in every way that it was not a big deal, that we were just having fun, that in this case, I was vulnerable because I wasn’t over Justin yet,” she writes.
She describes the short-lived romance as “a street fight.”
“Brawl is the only word for it — we were all over each other, grappling so passionately it was like we were in a street fight,” she pens.
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
Spears acknowledges “for a brief moment in time,” she “did think there could be something there.”
“The disappointments in my romantic life were just one part of how isolated I became. I felt so awkward all the time,” she recalls.
But Farrell distanced himself from talk that there was anything serious going on between the pair after taking her to the January 2003 premiere of his movie The Recruit.
“We’re not dating,” he said on the red carpet, per Entertainment Weekly. “She’s a sweet, sweet girl. There’s nothing going on — just mates.”
“At that time, he was the hottest young actor in Hollywood, and she was swept away by the romance of him taking a shine to her,” a source told the U.S. Sun of the dalliance.
“People forget that then she was not that experienced with boys or the dating game, so when they had their fling, she was taken aback by how nonchalant and disconnected he was. She was shocked at how he treated it all like a joke.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
Elsewhere in the book, which hits stores on Oct. 24, Spears claims Timberlake pressured her to have an abortion when they got pregnant at age 19.
“It was a surprise, but for me, it 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,” Spears writes of the pregnancy in an excerpt from the book obtained by PEOPLE. “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.”
Spears goes on to add that looking back, she doesn’t know if it was “the right decision.”
“If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” she writes. “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Advertisement 5
Article content
Spears recalls the procedure as “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
The Grammy winner, 41, dated Timberlake from from 1999 to 2002. After they split, she went on to marry Kevin Federline and gave birth to two boys — Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17.
In the book, which is already a bestseller, Spears also claims Timberlake cheated on her with “another celebrity,” whom many fans speculated was Nicole Appleton.
She also writes about a transgression with dancer and choreographer Wade Robson, who filed a civil lawsuit against the Michael Jackson estate in 2013, alleging that Jackson sexually abused him from 1990 to 1997.
In the book, an insider tells Us Weekly, Spears recalls dancing and making out with Robson while she was dating Timberlake.
Advertisement 6
Article content
“We were out one night and we went to a Spanish bar. We danced and danced. I made out with him that night,” Spears writes.
The pair “agreed to move past” the indiscretion when she convinced the NSYNC star she “only had eyes for him.”
But after their breakup Timberlake released a music video for Cry Me a River that implied Spears cheated on him.
Afterwards, Spears said the video was a “great way to sell” his 2002 solo debut record, Justified.
“He got what he wanted. I think it looks like such a desperate attempt, personally,” she told Rolling Stone the following year. “But that was a great way to sell the record. He’s smart.”
X: @markhdaniell
Article content
Comments
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.