Britney Spears fans have been speculating over whether her song Everytime contains references to the abortion she had in 2000.
The 41-year-old singer revealed in her new memoir that she had a termination after getting pregnant with Justin Timberlake during their relationship. Spears and Timberlake were teenagers when they dated between 1999 and 2002.
Excerpts from Spears' upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, reveal Timberlake “didn't want to be a father”. In an extract published in People, Spears also said: “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.”
She revealed she had the abortion in late 2000, when she was 18 or 19 years old, and that the procedure was “one of the most agonising things” she had ever experienced.
A year after the pair split, Spears released her album In the Zone, the third single from which was Everytime – a slow ballad which was a departure from some of her earlier, more upbeat releases.
Some fans have gone back to revisit the song's lyrics and believe they could be referencing the abortion, seeing them as an apology to the unborn baby rather than her mourning the end of her relationship with Timberlake.
The song's chorus: “And every time I see you in my dreams I see your face, you're haunting me. I guess I need you, baby,” is now being interpreted in a new way by some. Spears co-wrote the song with Annet Artani, while the music video, released in 2004, was directed by David LaChapelle.
Records from PRS, the body which manages music rights, say the writing split was 65% Britney and 35% Artani. There are also parts of the music video for the song, which was released in April 2004, that fans have suggested appear to point to an abortion too.
The video explores Britney's huge levels of fame, showing her being hounded by paparazzi and fans and then her getting injured after being hit in the head with a camera.
She retreats to her hotel room and gets in the bath and is seen to lose consciousness as she bleeds and then drowns. The video then has scenes which show Spears being carried into an ambulance, being resuscitated by doctors in a hospital bed all whilst her ghost looks on.
Spears' ghost then walks into the next room of the hospital, where a baby girl is being born. The narrative arc appears to be one life ending, while another one begins. It does not explicitly allude to an abortion.
However, fans have come up with theories that the baby in the music video is the one Britney aborted – brought to life in another world where the situation could have been different.
Her live performances have also been mentioned since Spears revealed details of the abortion – with one showing her touching her stomach whilst singing the song and another showing her interrupting a performance to kiss her sons – Sean Preston, now 18, and Jayden James, now 17, whilst they're sitting in the audience.
Timberlake is yet to comment on Spears' latest revelation but said in a social media post in 2021 that he was “deeply sorry” and would “take accountability” after admitting he had failed her during their relationship.
His song Cry Me A River, released shortly after their breakup in 2002, was seen by some as capitalising on their relationship, as he used heartbreak to promote his music and even featured a Britney lookalike in the video. Artani has previously said the song was partly intended as a response to Cry Me A River.
“He was talking [rubbish] about her at that time on the radio,” she said. “He was getting personal. Here, she had a different type of image, and he was really exposing some stuff that she probably didn't want out there.”
Speaking about the process of writing the song, she said: “After the Dream Within a Dream tour in which I sang backgrounds for her, we became friends and bonded over breaking up with our boyfriends.
“So we sat down in her house and starting writing. It was a very cathartic moment to share with another girl who has gone through something similar.”
In a 2003 interview, Spears discussed Everytime, commenting that she wrote “the whole thing from scratch on the piano”.
Spears' book is set to focus in part on her 13-year conservatorship under her father James and will be published on the 24 October – two years after the end of the legal arrangement which she says “stripped her of her womanhood”.
— CutC by bbc.com
