From Breakup Anthem to Grief Over Abortion: Britney Spears' Fans Dissect 'Everytime' Lyrics on Social Media

Britney Spears is making major revelations in her forthcoming memoir, The Woman in Me, including details about terminating a pregnancy during her relationship with pop superstar Justin Timberlake. According to excerpts published by People, Spears disclosed that Timberlake wasn't on board to become a father in the early 2000s, believing they were too young and not ready for children. Naturally, her fans were shocked by this revelation and took to social media to express their views. 

In particular, this admission from the 41-year-old singer has sparked renewed intrigue around the meaning of her song Everytime, which was released in 2003 at the height of her fame. The emotional ballad’s lyrics about love, loss, and needing someone had long been interpreted as being about her breakup with Timberlake. However, fans are now theorizing the song may actually be referencing the abortion detailed in Spears’ memoir.

Neither Spears nor Timberlake has explicitly confirmed the inspiration behind Everytime, and the music video features Spears singing mournfully in a hospital setting, walking past a woman who appeared to have just given birth and another who seemed to have passed away.

As per fans, this ambiguous imagery lent itself to various interpretations, including possible allusions to pregnancy and its loss. Furthermore, in The Woman in Me, Spears reportedly wrote that her pregnancy with Timberlake was unplanned and came as a surprise. However, she emphasized that it 'wasn’t a tragedy' for her, although Timberlake "said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young."

Spears described undergoing the abortion as “one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.” Her vivid account had many fans connecting the dots to “Everytime” and its themes of regret, longing, and feeling incomplete. “Without my wings, I feel so small/I guess I need you baby,” Spears sang in the chorus. On social media, fans passionately dissected Everytime with a new perspective. “Everytime by Britney Spears has a whole different meaning now,” one fan tweeted. “The baby in the Everytime music video was the baby Britney felt forced to abort. My heart.,” another fan added.

Despite the abortion, Spears later became a mother on her own terms, having two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline in the 2000s, as reported by Billboard. Now nearing the release of her tell-all memoir, she is poised to clarify longstanding mysteries around hits like Everytime and provide her narrative on her storied career and personal life after years of media speculation. After all, The Woman in Me sheds light on Spears’ experiences with pregnancy, motherhood, romance, and more over her decades-long career. For fans, it was an opportunity to potentially gain insight directly from Spears on the real inspirations behind her hit songs and videos, including the poignant ballad Everytime.