Timbaland has apologised for saying Justin Timberlake should "put a muzzle" on ex-girlfriend Britney Spears.
The producer made the comment last month during a live interview with 9th Wonder at the Kennedy Center amid the release of the pop idol's tell-all memoir, 'The Woman In Me'.
Taking questions from the audience, he said of the troubled star: “She goin’ crazy, right? I wanted to call JT, ‘Man, you gotta put a muzzle on that girl.'”
And during a TikTok Live, he said: “I apologise to the Britney fans and her."
His apology was in response to one user, who commented: “Yes, ‘you know about respecting women?’ Hell yeah.”
In the tome, Spears says she felt she was made out to be a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy" in Timberlake’s music video for 'Cry Me A River' - which Timbaland co-wrote - which came after their well-publicised split in 2002.
Spears also confessed that she cheated on Timberlake with Michael Jackson abuse accuser Wade Robson.
It has long been rumoured Spears, 41, and Timberlake, 42, 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 she and Timberlake were able to stay together afterwards and move past it.
In 2001, Robson choreographed Britney’s ‘Oops... I Did it Again’ and ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’ music videos as well as her 'Live from Las Vegas' concert special, and she gushed about him in a chat in 2000 with Good Morning America: “He’s just like a child prodigy, seriously... he’s a genius. He’s amazing.”
Robson lived his life relatively out of the spotlight until he famously claimed in the 2019 ‘Leaving Neverland’ documentary he was abused as a child by the late King of Pop.
Timberlake, who is now settled with two sons with his actress wife Jessica Biel, 41, is said to be reeling over the revelations in Spears’ book.
Mom-of-two Spears also reveals in her memoir she chose to abort Timberlake’s 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”.