Justin Timberlake breaks silence on Britney Spears drama before performing ‘Cry Me A River’

Justin Timberlake said "no disrespect" before performing his now-controversial hit 'Cry Me A River'. Picture: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Justin Timberlake said “no disrespect” before performing his now-controversial hit ‘Cry Me A River’. Picture: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

Justin Timberlake said “no disrespect” before performing his now-controversial hit ‘Cry Me A River’.

The 42-year-old singer’s ex-girlfriend, Britney Spears, claimed she felt like a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy” in Timberlake’s music video for the noughties tune, which came after their well-publicised split in 2002.

And before he performed the track at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Timberlake broke his silence and addressed the drama with two words.

In a fan-filmed clip that has gone viral, he simply said: “No disrespect.”

The ‘Toxic’ hitmaker, also 42, made the comments against Timberlake in her tell-all memoir ‘The Woman In Me’, in which she also claimed she chose to abort his baby when they were together as he wasn’t ready to be a dad.

She said about the termination when she was 19: “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.

“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 added having the abortion was “one of the most agonising things I have ever experienced in my life”.

The ‘Oops!… I Did It Again’ hitmaker also confessed that she cheated on Timberlake with Michael Jackson abuse accuser Wade Robson.

It has long been rumoured Spears and Timberlake split after three years of dating as she cheated with Australian choreographer Robson, 41, with the lyrics to the song fuelling speculation.

In her book, she wrote: “We were out one night and we went to a Spanish bar. We danced and danced. I made out with him that night.”

Spears also insists she stayed loyal to Timberlake for years “with that one exception”, and that they were able to stay together afterwards and move past it.

Timberlake, who is now settled with two sons with his actress wife Jessica Biel, 41, was said to be reeling over the revelations in Spears’ book.