Pop star Britney Spears has been in the limelight since she burst onto the music scene in the late 1990s, and now one of her songs from 2003 is being questioned by fans.
Spears is known for producing catchy and memorable hits, much like her debut cult song “Baby One More Time,” as well as “Toxic” and “Oops…I Did It Again,” but a fan has spotted that her ballad “Everytime” may provide a clue to her alleged abortion in the early 2000s.
Released in 2003, “Everytime” was an emotional song, with the music video showing powerful scenes of love, tragedy, and desperation; and a version of Spears struggling with a celebrity relationship and her career.
Many Spears fans then speculated that it was about her ex and NSYNC member Justin Timberlake, although this was never confirmed.
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Spears and Timberlake, dated between 1999 and 2002, having both been in the TV circuit from an early age, appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club, a show that ran until 1996.
They were seen as the ultimate pop star couple, with the news of them parting ways in 2002 hitting music lovers hard.
A recent development of their relationship, although it ended more than 20 years ago, is that during their time together, Spears allegedly had an abortion.
People reported that in an extract from her upcoming book The Woman in Me, Spears claims that she fell pregnant by Timberlake but had an abortion.
This news had fans questioning her song “Everytime” and the scenes in the video.
One eagle-eyed fan posted a short 40-second snippet from the music video on X, formerly Twitter, with the caption: “Oh so Britney spears’ ‘Everytime’ wasn’t about Justin Timberlake but it was about the baby?! #JustinTimberlake #BritneySpears.”
The portion of the video they used shows Spears singing the lyrics: “And everytime I try to fly I fall/Without my wings/I feel so small/I guess I need you baby.”
In the scene, Spears is standing in an oversized white shirt, and behind her a mother who had just given birth meets her baby for the first time.
This scene has a second meaning now to some fans as the stars in the music video fight and break up, and a newborn is seen. Although Spears and Timberlake parted ways amicably, as the People article reports, she was allegedly pregnant during their relationship, so does the video reflect more deeply what she was going through?
Newsweek reached out to Spears’ publicist and representatives of Timberlake via email for comment on Wednesday.
The fan theory gives the video and song additional depth and meaning.
Other fans commented on the post, with one saying, “My jaw dropped, I’ve seen this video a million times and never made this connection. It was in front of us the entire time.”
“I almost cried when I read the lyrics,” a second added.
Messages of support continued to pour in on the post.
An upset fan commented: “This is the first time I’ve seen this video. Oh that poor poor girl. I’m so sorry Britney.”
Another simply reposted the video and wrote one of the song lyrics: “And this song’s my sorry.”
The official music video on YouTube has been viewed around 161 million times with fresh comments coming in with similar messages of support.
One concerned fan on YouTube wrote: “When this video came out, it didn’t make too much sense to me but I could feel her sadness and sorrow. But now it’s all so clear. It all makes sense. The lyrics all make sense. The scenes in the video all make sense. We see you, Britney. We never stopped loving you.”