Timbaland Apologizes for Saying Justin Timberlake ‘Should Have Put a Muzzle on’ Britney Spears: ‘You Have a Voice’

Timbaland has apologized for comments he made about Britney Spears.

The music producer recently came under fire for saying in an Oct. 29 interview that his longtime collaborator Justin Timberlake “should have put a muzzle” on Spears amid allegations she made about him that came to light following the release of her bombshell memoir, The Woman in Me. 

On Wednesday, Timbaland, 51, issued an apology in a TikTok live-stream. After he received backlash, Timbaland (real name: Timothy Zachery Mosley) shared shared a portion of the apology on his Instagram.

“There’s no explanation, nothing,” he said in the clip. “‘Put a muzzle,’ yo, what the freak was I thinking about? I should have never said it ... To all the Britney fans, you’re right and I’m wrong. I can look outside myself and say that wasn’t a joke and that wasn’t a nice thing to say. I apologize to the Britney fans and her.” 

"Never too late to apologize!!!!" Timbaland wrote in the caption of the video, which was soundtracked by his and OneRepublic's hit song "Apologize."

Although the live stream expired, fan recordings of the longer video have surfaced on social media. 

“Come on man, I’m keeping it 1,000 with y’all, but I’m sorry to all the Britney fans, even to her,” the music industry veteran said. “You have a voice, you speak what you wanna speak. Who am I to tell you what not to speak? And I was wrong, you know, for saying that.”

Timbaland made the comments last month when he was in conversation with fellow producer 9th Wonder at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where he was asked by an audience member about one of his songs with Timberlake, “Cry Me a River,” being in the news again following Spears’ mention of it in her memoir. 

"She's going crazy, right?" he said. “I wanted to call JT and say, 'Man! You should have put a muzzle on that girl.'”

In Spears' memoir, the pop icon reflects on the 2002 music video for “Cry Me a River,” which she writes features a plot in which "a woman who looks like me cheats on him and he wanders around sad in the rain."

The “Hold Me Closer” singer writes that she felt as though the video and song portrayed her as a "harlot who'd broken the heart of America's golden boy," when in actuality, she was "comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood" following their 2002 breakup.

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Throughout The Woman in Me, Spears reflects on her relationship with Timberlake and the aftermath of their split, alleging that Timberlake cheated on her while they were together and claiming that she had an abortion because he "didn't want to be a father." (A rep for Timberlake did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Days before the book was released on Oct. 24, Spears opened up in a post on Instagram about how she didn’t mean to “offend” anyone with the project. She wrote, "My book's purpose was not to offend anyone by any means. That was me then ... that is in the past!!!"

Spears continued her statement by saying she’s “moved on” from the events she writes of that happened decades ago and added, “It’s a beautiful clean slate from here."