Justin Timberlake certainly made a choice at his surprise show in New York City this week.
Mere months after Britney Spears accused him of cheating while they were dating, urging her to get an abortion and breaking up with Spears via text message, Timberlake took the stage Wednesday at Irving Plaza to debut new music and play some old hits.
The pop star introduced “Cry Me a River,” his hit 2002 breakout song, with an unexpected flair, captured in crowd footage published on Instagram: “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f**king nobody.”
Timberlake dated Spears from 1999 to 2002 before the couple called it quits. He made headlines again when her memoir, “The Woman in Me,” painted an unflattering picture of his behavior during their relationship.
Timberlake nonetheless went viral at the time, as tales of his “blaccent” trended on social media and fans learned for the first time how “Cry Me a River” made Spears feel after their breakup. Spears particularly decried his portrayal of her in the song’s music video.
He “released the video for his song ‘Cry Me a River,’ in which a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain,” she wrote in the book. “In the news media, I was described as a harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.”
“The truth: I was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood.”
While Spears admitted in her memoir that she was also unfaithful while dating Timberlake, she publicly apologized Saturday for “some of the things” she wrote — and added that she’s “in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song,” which he premiered on “Saturday Night Live” that night.
Timberlake himself previously apologized for his mistakes while dating Spears. But her fans were not happy with his declaration on Wednesday, as was evident by some social media reactions.