Britney Spears deletes post honoring Janet Jackson

Britney Spears posted a tribute to her favorite Janet Jackson on Instagram, only to delete it, amid her rekindled feud with ex Justin Timberlake.

Spears shared the cover of Jackson’s 1993 pop diva opus janet.writing, “Thank you to this beautiful lady for keeping my dreams and my heart alive.”

The “Overprotected (DarkChild Remix)” singer continued: “She has always been the deepest and brightest woman at the same time. She went through a lot, but I feel like she is someone I will look up to for the rest of my life. Thank you for your music and your divine way of unraveling intelligence into a vision much clearer than anyone could imagine.”

Why did Spears decide to remove such a sweet tribute to the woman who gave us seven top-five hits from one album? Well, things haven’t been going well for the early 2000s ‘It’ pop couple, featuring Spears and her ex-boyfriend/boybander Justin Timberlake.

Spears’ memoir revealed some unpleasant aspects of her relationship with Timberlake, particularly around the song “Cry Me a River” and how she solely blamed Spears for the end of their relationship. Timberlake received criticism for performing the song, prompting Spears to write an apology on Instagram. Timberlake then introduced “Cry Me a River” with an “apology” of his own to “absolutely no one,” only for Spears to respond with “I’m sorry, I’m not sorry.”

Timberlake and Jackson’s history is also quite checkered, dating back to the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, in which Timberlake ended up exposing Jackson’s chest to millions of people. Timberlake’s career thrived while Jackson suffered the brunt of the backlash. In 2021, Timberlake apologized extensively to both Jackson and Spears.

“I deeply regret the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn or did not stand up for what was right,” he wrote at the time. “I want to specifically apologize to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson, both individually, because I care about and respect these women and I know I failed.”

For her part, Jackson stated in her 2022 documentary that she and Timberlake have moved on and remain “very good friends.”

“It was an accident that shouldn’t have happened,” Jackson said, referring to the halftime show controversy. “But everyone is looking for someone to blame and that has to stop. Justin and I are very good friends and we will always be good friends.”

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