Justin Timberlake Boldly Apologized ‘To Absolutely F*cking Nobody,’ And Everyone Thinks It Was Directed At Britney Spears

Justin Timberlake had been relatively dormant for the past five-ish years, and while his Everything I Thought It Was album cycle has only just begun, he’s suddenly everywhere again. Last week, Timberlake appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he confirmed his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour. Last Saturday, January 27, he performed “Selfish” and “Sanctified” as the SNL musical guest. Timberlake even used his solo album promotional cycle to tease potential new NSYNC music on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Most recently, on Wednesday night, January 31, which was his 43rd birthday, Timberlake performed a one-night-only concert at New York City’s Irving Plaza. A fan named Gilberto Hora was in attendance and did an excellent job of chronicling the show on Instagram Stories. One video in particular has gone viral, as it shows Timberlake saying, “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f*cking nobody” before launching into Jay-Z’s “Holy Grail,” on which he’s the featured artist.

Timberlake did not say Britney Spears’ name, but did he really need to? Many people are assuming that this was shade thrown Spears’ direction due to Spears alleging hers and Timberlake’s early-2000s relationship involved being pregnant with his child before an abortion and infidelity on Timberlake’s part in her October memoir, The Woman In Me.

In December, Timberlake said “no disrespect” before performing “Cry Me A River” in Las Vegas — another perceived indirect acknowledgement of Spears. After Timberlake dropped “Selfish” last week, Spears’ fans showed their, um, distaste for Timberlake by sending Spears’ 2011 song, also called “Selfish,” to No. 1 on iTunes. More importantly, though, Spears posted a message to Timberlake on her now-private Instagram.

“I wanna apologize for some of the things I wrote about in my book,” Spears captioned a snippet from Timberlake’s appearance with Fallon. “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 ??? Ps ‘Sanctified’ is wow too.”

See some of the reactions to Timberlake’s latest comments below.