After news broke that Britney Spears reveals in her upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, fans are revisiting her 2003 music video for “Everytime.”
The “Toxic” singer, now 41, writes that the “Cry Me a River” singer, now 42, requested she terminate the pregnancy.
In the music video for “Everytime” — which fans have long speculated was about Timberlake and their breakup — Spears walks through a hospital with two women — one who just died and one who gave birth.
Meanwhile, the lyrics read: “And every time I try to fly, I fall / Without my wings, I feel so small / I guess I need you, baby / And every time / I see you in my dreams / I see your face, you’re haunting me / I guess I need you, baby.”
One fan wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter), “everytime by britney spears has a whole different meaning now.”
Another fan added: “The baby in the Everytime music video was the baby Britney felt forced to abort. My heart.”
Spears has never clarified the meaning behind the 20-year-old song or music video.
In the Woman in Me, Spears opens up about the painful experience.
“It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated,” Spears writes of the pregnancy in the book, PEOPLE confirmed. “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.”
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She writes in the book: “If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
Spears writes of her experience undergoing the abortion: “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
After Spears and Timberlake split in 2002, she went on to become a mother, welcoming two sons — Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17 — with her second husband, Kevin Federline.
Spears will release her much-anticipated memoir on Oct. 24, through Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.