Entertainment

7 Britney Spears Quotes About Justin Timberlake That'll Take You Back to the Early Aughts

To celebrate the wonderful holiday that is Throwback Thursday, Billboard shared an Britney Spears interview with Oprah Winfrey from 2002. In the video, a 20-year-old Spears and the Oprah host chat about the snake-tastic MTV VMA performance of “I’m A Slave 4 U”, her love of sit-ups, and then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake. Awwwww.

It’s been over a decade since Timberlake and Spears were the royal couple of the Pop Music Kingdom, and a lot has changed since then (that isn't a bad thing! A bunch of the changes have been good! Everyone is happy! ...Says the woman who doesn't know Timberlake or Spears personally): Timberlake married actress Jessica Biel, and the couple is rumored to be expecting their first child; Spears is the mother of two and currently kicking it with Charlie Ebersol. One rules Myspace, and the other rules Las Vegas.

One thing that hasn't changed: Both continue to make terrific pop music.

After I watched that Oprah clip, I was feeling pretty dang nostalgic (I mean, hi. I am a Millennial. We love us some nostalgia). I promptly revisited every early '00s Spears interview I could get my grubby mitts on. The one interview topic that pulled at my heartstrings every time: Britney and Justin's relationship. Something about their young love just punches me right in the gut!

Let's dig in, shall we?

by Kristie Rohwedder

Pinky & Stinky

From Oprah (2002): “I have a ring that he gave me that I wear on my pinky so he ended up calling me Pinky one day, and then I started calling him Stinky for some reason. So those are our nicknames.”

I can’t be the only person who hopes the “some reason” has something to do with farts.

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4EVA

From Oprah (2002): “Definitely in the future, I would love to be with him forever.”

AUGH MY HEART.

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Rumors, Man!

From Oprah (2002): “One day I woke up and he was like, ‘Baby, we’re in engaged. Did you know that?’ and I was like, ‘No!’”

Man, I totally get this. Here’s a totally equivalent example: When I was in high school, a classmate congratulated me because they’d heard I got a 5 on the AP World History exam. (I did not get a 5 on the APWH exam.) I was like, “I wish. Where’d you hear that?” The classmate couldn’t remember. Rumors are annoying.

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AWWWW

From MTV’s Diary of Britney Spears (2001): “When I see Justin’s grandparents and stuff like that, they’ve been together for freakin’ 80 years, or however many years. That’s so rare these days. I’m gonna have that. I know I’m gonna have that.”

AUGH MY HEART, PART DEUX.

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No Such Thing As "Too Much"

From The Observer (2001): “When people get too personal, it bothers me. But I’m not ashamed at all to say that I love him from the bottom of my heart. As far as love is concerned, with him, too much is not enough. He’s everything.”

I don’t know why I thought I could handle revisiting these quotes. The bittersweetness… levels… are… too… high.

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Someone Has A Case of the Butterflies...

From The Observer (2001): “Like, it’s so weird; we’ve been going out for two years and I still feel the same. Oh! I don’t want to say this! I’m so embarrassed! But, like, I still want to look cute, and I get nervous … With him, it’s still the same as I felt two years ago. But it is a deeper love now than when I was younger. Like, we’ve gone through so much together and we’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We know each other inside and out.”

What a smitten kitten.

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The Story of When JT Asked Out Britney

From Rich & Famous (2001): “He definitely asked me out. We were doing a radio show, and this was before ‘…Baby One More Time’ came out … He knocks on the door and is like, ‘Can I see Britney?’ And Felicia didn’t know who he was and she was like, ‘No. Who are you?’ And I was like, ‘No! It’s Justin!’”

I heart Assistant Felicia.

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