Britney Spears Calls Out Diane Sawyer for Exploiting Her in 2003 Interview

Britney Spears, Diane Sawyer, and Robin Roberts

Britney Spears is candidly addressing the controversial sit-down she had with Diane Sawyer in the wake of her breakup with Justin Timberlake.

The "Circus" singer, 41, who is opening up about the demise of their relationship—fueled by an abortion and several cheating allegations—in her upcoming memoir The Woman In Me, spoke with the famed journalist, now 77, in 2003, and the interaction left a bad taste in many viewers' mouths.

When the interview resurfaced following the release of the documentary Framing Britney Spears, playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris called Sawyer out for her participation in a "particularly vile" and misogynistic culture, with plenty of others expressing similar sentiments about the way she grilled Spears—who was just 21 at the time.

In a new excerpt from the novel, which comes out on Oct. 24, obtained by The New York Times, Spears admits to feeling "exploited" in the aftermath, after her father and team allegedly invited Sawyer to Spears' home without her approval (according to Newsweek, Jamie Spears has denied any involvement in the incident) and forced her into the discussion, which ultimately left her in tears after Sawyer questioned what she had done to cause Timberlake "so much pain [and] suffering.”

Spears has since admitted to kissing choreographer Wade Robson before her tumultuous relationship with Timberlake came to an end, though defends it as a response to his purported infidelity.

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Today, Spears remembers that interview as a “breaking point” for her. “I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world,” she wrote.

Spears first touched on the impact of the interview in a since-deleted Instagram caption in Dec. 2021. "Do we dare forget the Diane Sawyer interview in my apartment almost 20 years ago?" she wrote at the time. "What was with the 'You're in the wrong' approach?? Geeze... and making me cry???"

Timberlake, 42, has not spoken out since the bombshells included in Spears' memoir began to come to light, but he did once apologize to her, as well as Janet Jackson, for his role in "[benefiting] from a system that condones misogyny and racism."

Parade has reached out to Diane Sawyer's team for comment.

Next: Britney Spears Explains What Led Her to Shave Her Head in 2007