Justin Timberlake Confronted the Man Britney Spears Was Cheating on Him with While She Was Hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’

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published 28 October 2023

Justin Timberlake apparently confronted dancer and choreographer Wade Robson over his alleged affair with Britney Spears—while Spears hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, Page Six reports.

Not long before Timberlake broke up with Spears via a two-word text message while Spears shot a music video, Timberlake joined his then-girlfriend on February 2, 2002, at the NBC show’s iconic 30 Rock studios in Manhattan. What no one knew at the time was, just days before, Timberlake “had found a lengthy breakup note she had written to Robson,” Page Six reports.

“Britney was pulling double duty as a musical guest and host [on SNL],” a former production source told the outlet. “Justin had found a letter which made it clear that the affair had been going on for months, and that she and Wade had been sleeping together. He had been trying to get a hold of Wade and finally got him on the phone as Britney was in the middle of SNL. If you watch closely, you will see that he did not join Britney onstage at the end of the show when she thanked them.” (Excuse us while we go try to find SNL archives from 2002…)

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After the taping ended, Spears and Timberlake “spent 40 minutes huddled in her dressing room before heading to the afterparty they were hosting at Serafina,” Page Six reports. One month later, their three-year relationship was over.

In Spears’ recently released memoir, The Woman in Me, she confessed that she did cheat on Timberlake with Robson (after discovering that Timberlake had cheated on her), but wrote that she and Robson merely kissed. “We were out one night and we went to a Spanish bar,” she wrote of Robson. “We danced and danced. I made out with him that night.”

That said, per Page Six, last week singer-songwriter Annet Artani—who helped Spears write “Everytime” in 2003—said that Timberlake found a 14-page breakup letter from Spears to Robson, and hinted that the “affair was more serious than a kiss,” the outlet reports.

Back to that night’s episode of SNL: Timberlake actually joined Spears onstage—along with comedian Chris Kattan—to be a part of a joke in which Kattan claimed he was Spears.

“I know how to settle this,” Spears said in the skit. “Justin, can you come out here for a second?” Timberlake walked onstage to screams from fans, telling Spears, “Listen, I just want to say I had a really great time last night.”

“Justin, that was not me,” Spears said.

“Kattan, you gotta stop doing that, man!” Timberlake yelled, before introducing his girlfriend by saying, “Britney Spears is here!” He then joked, “Baby, are you sure it wasn’t you?”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.