Britney Spears posted a response to the reception of her book by the media, denouncing the headlines that have come out of early excerpts.
“My motive for this book was not to harp on my past experiences which is what the press is doing and it’s dumb and silly !!!” she wrote on social media. “I have moved on since then !!! #TheWomaninMe”
“The Woman in Me,” is slated to publish on Oct. 24.
“Most of this book is from 20 years ago … I have moved on and it’s a beautiful clean slate from here !!! I am here to establish it that way for the rest of my entire life,” she wrote. “Either way, that is the last of it and shit happens !!! This is actually a book I didn’t know needed to be written … although some might be offended, it has given me closure on all things for a better future !!!”
The celebrity also stated that she quit the entertainment business four years ago because of headlines like the ones she has been reading about her memoir. The book entered the media this week when People published an exclusive excerpt in which Spears revealed she had an abortion after getting pregnant with Justin Timberlake’s baby.
“I don’t know if that was the right decision. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” Spears wrote in her book. “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Spears and Timberlake dated for three years starting in 1999 when Spears was 17 and Timberlake was 18. Timberlake is now married to actress Jessica Biel, with whom he has two sons. Timberlake’s rep did not respond to a request for comment from People.
“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. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated,” Spears writes of the pregnancy in the book. “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.”