Justin Timberlake says 'What Goes Around… Comes Around' isn't about Britney

For almost two decades, fans were sure they knew who 'What Goes Around… Comes Around' was about. Justin Timberlake now says they got it wrong.

In a new video interview with Complex, the singer set the record straight on one of pop's longest-running rumours.

What did he say?

"Maybe I should dispel a rumor at this point, which has gone around forever, which is like, it's not a personal story from mine," Timberlake said. "It's actually a personal story from a friend's. I asked permission."

He didn't name the friend. He did say the friend was going through a breakup and told him what had happened. Timberlake asked if he could write about it.

The answer, as he tells it: "Yeah, torch that bitch. What goes around comes around." Timberlake says his reaction was, "I have to go. Thank you."

He also said the track was modelled on his own public split. The song came together fast. He says he wrote it in "damn near 20 minutes", and the 10-minute video he shot for it "hit on all cylinders" for him.

Why did everyone assume it was about Britney?

Here's some background. In 2002, Timberlake released 'Cry Me a River', widely seen as a song about his breakup with Britney Spears. The video even featured a lookalike.

When 'What Goes Around… Comes Around' came out on 12 December 2006, as a single from the album FutureSex/LoveSounds, listeners took it as a sequel. The theme was similar and the timing fit. The idea stuck for years.

What's next?

Timberlake is continuing to look back at his career. A newly announced docuseries will cover it, and it will also feature him and Janet Jackson revisiting the infamous Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction".

This weekend he was also in the news for something else. The 45-year-old walked a fashion show in Denver for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, alongside his 7-year-old niece Zaya and his sons.