Lance Bass has shared a message for Britney Spears fans criticising Justin Timberlake, urging them to “take a note” from the singer.

Timberlake, 42, appeared to turn off the comments on his Instagram account on Friday (27 October), days after his Noughties relationship with Spears, 41, came under the spotlight – following the release of Spears’s explosive memoir The Woman in Me.

The book covers the “Oops... I Did it Again” hitmaker’s early life, stardom, motherhood, and romantic affairs, as well as the the controversial conservatorship, which controlled her life for 13 years.

Timerlake comes up several times, with Spears addressing rumours that their three-year relationship ended in 2002 because she cheated on him. The Grammy winner confirmed these infidelity rumours, explaining she had kissed her choreographer Wade Robson. Spears also wrote that Timberlake had been unfaithful to her first.

Elsewhere, Spears revealed that she had an abortion during their relationship because “Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy”. She also said Timberlake ended their relationship with a text message, writing that it left her “devastated” and “comatose”.

After the book was released, Spears’s fans began criticising Timberlake on social media, with a source close to the singer telling PageSix he decided to turn the comments off because of the “hateful, disgusting things people were saying” to him.

Responding to the backlash against his NSYNC bandmate, Bass, 44, told TMZ on Friday (27 October): “Look, everyone has their own opinion. I feel like the world is so full of hate right now and we need to practise a little forgiveness. Britney did. Let’s take a note from her.”

Ahead of the release of her eagerly anticipated memoir, which was accidentally leaked in Mexico, Spears criticised the “dumb and silly” coverage of The Woman in Me.

In a statement shared on Instagram, she wrote: “My book’s purpose was not to offend anyone by any means!!! That was me then... that is in the past!!! I don’t like the headlines I am reading... that’s exactly why I quit the business four years ago!!!”

“Most of the book is from 20 years ago... I have moved on and it’s a beautiful clean slate from here,” she added. “I am here to establish it that way for the rest of my entire life!!! Either way, this is the last of it and s*** happens!!!”

Spears said her motive for writing the book, which was released on 24 October, “was not to harp on my past experiences which is what the press is doing and it’s dumb and silly!!!”

“I have moved on since then,” she said.

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