Justin Timberlake finally reveals if ‘What Goes Around… Comes Around’ is about ex Britney Spears — a full 20 years later

Justin Timberlake says his 2006 hit “What Goes Around… Comes Around” was based on a friend’s breakup, not his relationship with Britney Spears. He addressed the long-running rumour during an appearance on Complex’s “Re-Rank” YouTube series, saying he asked his friend’s permission to use the story.

Timberlake recalled that his friend suggested the song’s title and said he wrote it in nearly 20 minutes. He ranked it among his top one or two songs, while noting that “Cry Me a River”, released in 2002, may have been about Spears. The former couple dated from 1999 to 2002; in her 2023 memoir, Spears described the fallout from that song’s video, and she later apologised for some of what she wrote.