Britney Spears Recalls Being Forced Into An Interview With Diane Sawyer Shortly After Her Breakup With Justin Timberlake: “I Felt Like I Had Been Exploited”

No one is safe from Britney Spears‘ upcoming memoir The Woman In Me — including Diane Sawyer. According to excerpts obtained by The New York Times, the pop star felt “exploited” by the journalist during their 2003 sit-down, which came shortly after her infamous breakup with Justin Timberlake.

Spears’ relationship with Timberlake has been a big talking point of the book over the last few days — especially since she admitted to getting an abortion at the suggestion of the NSYNC member. The two dated from 1999 until their 2002 breakup, which Spears writes Timberlake had done over a text message, leaving her “devastated.”

At the time, the blame was largely placed on Spears as rumors circulated claiming she had cheated on Timberlake. While she admits in her book to kissing choreographer Wade Robson, she reveals that Timberlake was also unfaithful with another “celebrity,” though she does not specify who.

The star further became a victim of public backlash after Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” music video, which featured an unfaithful woman who looked like Spears, plus Timberlake walking around looking “sad in the rain.” While the media portrayed her as a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy,” she was actually “comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood” she writes.

Shortly after their breakup, Spears recalls feeling forced by her father and management to do an interview with Sawyer, who only further pushed the narrative that she was in the wrong. During the conversation — which Spears refers to in the memoir as her “breaking point” — Sawyer grilled the 21-year-old over her failed relationship. At one point, the “Baby One More Time” singer even broke down in tears and asked production to pause filming.

“He has gone on television and pretty much said you broke his heart, you did something that caused him so much pain, so much suffering. What did you do?” Sawyer pressed at the time.

Looking back on the experience, Spears writes, “I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world,” per the Times.

This isn’t the first time the Crossroads actress has called out Sawyer. Not long after her conservatorship ended in 2021, she went off in a since-deleted Instagram post.

“Do we dare forget the Diane Sawyer interview in my apartment almost 20 years ago? What was with the ‘You’re in the wrong’ approach?? Geeze… and making me cry???” she captioned her post. “Something I never shared when I had that big break up years ago was that I couldn’t talk afterwards … I never spoke to anyone for a very long time … I was in shock.”

She added, “Pretty lame of my dad and three men to show up at my door when I could hardly speak … two days later they put Diane Sawyer in my living room … they forced me to talk!”

The Woman in Me comes out on Oct. 24.