Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake both seem to take back their apologies

Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake have both seemingly retracted their apologies, possibly to each other.

• READ MORE: ‘Controlling Britney Spears’ review: toxic conservatorship back under the microscope

For Timberlake, the moment took place during one of his recent live shows in New York City, celebrating his 43rd birthday on Wednesday night (January 31). During the set, he went on to introduce his hit song ‘Cry Me A River’ by telling the crowd: “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to absolutely fucking nobody.”

While the former *NSYNC didn’t clarify who his retracted apology was aimed towards, the track has been speculated to be about his relationship with Spears, which ran between 1999 and 2002. In the accompanying music video, a blonde actress resembling Spears was featured and the lyrics saw Timberlake sing about being cheated on.

Spears later described the video as “a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain”.

She added that the media saw her as a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy” when in reality she was “comatose in Louisiana” trying to mend her broken heart while Timberlake was “happily running around Hollywood”.

However, the statement may have also been about Janet Jackson and in relation to the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime show, where the singer exposed Jackson’s breast on live television. The gig on Wednesday happened to fall on the same day that the moment took place, 20 years earlier.

@britneyplanetitalia

Justin Timberlake seemingly shades Britney Spears while performing tonight in NYC #britneyspears #justintimberlake #perte #fyp #britneyarmy #britneyspearsfan

♬ suono originale – Britney Planet Italia

Elsewhere, Britney Spears also appeared to take back an apology she issued.

Taking to her private Instagram account yesterday (February 1), she shared a post with the caption: “Someone told me someone was talking shit about me on the streets !!!”

“Do you want to bring it to the court or will you go home crying to your mom like you did last time??? I’m not sorry !!!” she added.

Like with Timberlake, it is not clear who Spears’ statement was aimed towards, although it does come just days after she initially offered support for the singer following the release of his new comeback single ‘Selfish’.

“I wanna apologise for some of the things I wrote about in my book,” Spears wrote on Instagram on Sunday evening (January 28), referring to her memoir, The Woman In Me. “If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about I am deeply sorry.”

“I also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish’ It is soo good and how come every time I see Justin and Jimmy together I laugh so hard ???” she wrote, sharing a clip of the singer on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. She later praised another of his new songs, ‘Sanctified’.

The initial apology came after Spears shared insight into their past relationship in her long-awaited tell-all book. In the memoir, she spoke openly about her personal life, career, family and 13-year conservatorship, as well as admitting that she had an abortion while dating the former *NSYNC star.

She said that their pregnancy came as a “surprise” and suggested that it was Timberlake’s attitude towards the discovery that played a major role in her having an abortion.

“For me, it wasn’t a tragedy. 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,” she wrote (via Sky News). “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it.”

She also described the abortion as “one of the most agonising things I have ever experienced in my life”.

Later this year, Timberlake is set to embark on his newly-announced ‘Forget The World’ US tour, marking his first string of live dates in five years.

As for Spears, earlier this week the pop star Britney teased fans with news of an upcoming project, seemingly titled ‘Sex & Diamonds’.