Channeling his thoughts into lyrics. It took Justin Timberlake nearly no time at all to write his 2002 ballad “Cry Me a River.”
“I’ve been scorned. I’ve been pissed off. The feelings I had were so strong, I had to write it,” Timberlake, 37, writes in his new memoir, Hindsight & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me, which was released on Tuesday, October 30. “I translated my feelings into a form where people could listen and hopefully relate to it. People heard me and they understood it because we’ve all been there.”
Although Timberlake didn’t address the inspiration behind his track, Britney Spears is believed to have influenced the emotional lyrics. Timberlake and the “Womanizer” singer, 36, dated from 1998 to 2002 after meeting on set of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Back in August 2016, Timberlake told Vanity Fair Italia that “Cry Me a River,” which is rumored to be about Spears cheating on him, “was written in a time of pain, like, everyone knows.”
Timberlake met his future wife, Jessica Biel, nearly five years later. The “Mirrors” songster and the Sinner actress, 36, went public with their romance in January 2007. In his tell-all, Timberlake writes that he was never the same after falling for Biel. “[She] changed me,” he notes. “She changed my life.”
The Friends With Benefits actor and the 7th Heaven alum tied the knot in October 2012 and welcomed son Silas in April 2015.
Hindsight & All the Things I Can’t See in Front of Me is available now.