Britney Spears has admitted to having an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake.
The pop star made the bombshell revelation after 20 years of silence in her upcoming memoir "The Woman in Me," excerpts of which were published by People.
"It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn't a tragedy," Spears, 41, writes of the pregnancy in the book. "I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I'd anticipated.
"But Justin definitely wasn't happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren't ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young."
Timberlake and Spears dated from 1999 until 2002.
"If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it. And yet Justin was so sure that he didn't want to be a father," Spears continued in her book. "To this day, it's one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life."
Spears went on to marry dancer Kevin Federline, with whom she shares two sons, Sean Preston, 18, and Jayden James, 17. The pair divorced in 2007.
A rep for Timberlake did not immediately respond to People's request for comment.
Spears recently stirred controversy after posting a video of her dancing with knives that she later claimed were fake. The video prompted police to conduct a wellness check on the singer after an unidentified person with a close relationship to Spears called authorities "genuinely concerned about her wellbeing."
"Some would argue this is her expressing her creative freedom, and some might argue this is dangerous and there's a safety issue or mental health concern," Ventura County Sheriff's Office Captain Dean Worthy said at the time.
Shortly after making her admission about having an abortion, Spears took to Instagram again to post another video of her dancing with knives but emphasized that they were not real.
"Come over don't worry I have such a warm inviting loving home with these FAKE knives," she captioned the video.