Justin Timberlake denies that ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’ is about Britney Spears

Justin Timberlake is dispelling rumors surrounding one of his biggest songs.

His hit “What Goes Around… Comes Around”, which was the third single from his album FutureSex/LoveSounds, It has long been speculated that it was his ex Britney Spears. Even though the former couple had been separated for over four years at the time of the song’s release, that didn’t stop people from thinking the track was some sort of sequel to “Cry Me a River,” which featured a music video with a Spears lookalike.

“Maybe I should dispel a rumor at this point, which has been around forever, that this is not a personal story of mine,” Timberlake said on Complex’s YouTube series “Re-Rank,” which features artists ranking their best songs. “This is actually a personal story from a friend. I asked for permission.”

The 45-year-old said he was inspired by his friend, who was going through a breakup.

“He was just going through it and he was telling me what happened and I said, ‘Do you mind if I write about this?’ And I quote, my friend said, “Yeah, burn that bitch down.” What goes around comes around. And I said to myself, “I have to go.” Thank you,’” he said.

The “Can’t Stop the Feeling” singer said he wrote the song quickly and felt the creative process went smoothly.

“This song was written in, I want to say, almost 20 minutes,” he said. “It was just fluid. The interlude that goes with it, like it was just right, and then you put the video with it, there’s a 10-minute video that we shot for it, like that, it just fired up all cylinders for me.”

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As for where he would rank the song in his discography, he said he would put it at “one or two.”

Although this track isn’t about Spears, her song “Cry Me a River,” from her 2002 debut album, Justifiedhad been inspired by her. When he used an actress who looked like her in the music video, the “Overprotected” singer admitted she was heartbroken.

“In the media, I was portrayed as a prostitute who had broken the heart of America’s golden boy,” Spears wrote in her 2023 memoir. The woman in me. “The truth: I was in a coma in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood. Can I just say that on his explosive album and in all the press surrounding it, Justin neglected to mention the many times he cheated on me? There’s always more leeway in Hollywood for men than for women. And I see how men are encouraged to talk bad about women to become famous and powerful. But I was broken.”