Britney Spears shot to fame as the quintessential sugar-pop princess but, in 2003, she showed her serious side with the moving hit ‘Everytime’. And now, the track has acquired a whole new meaning in the light of revelations made in her upcoming memoir ‘The Woman in Me’. In the autobiography, Spears, 41, claims that she fell pregnant during her three-year relationship with fellow superstar Justin Timberlake. And while she’d been convinced that she and the NSYNC heartthrob would have children together “one day”, she said he “definitely wasn’t happy” about the news. The singer wrote in an excerpt published by People on Tuesday: “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.” She went on: “I’m sure people will hate me for this, but I agreed not to have the baby. I don’t know if that was the right decision. 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 then revealed that she had an abortion in late 2000 when she was just 18 or 19 years old, and said the procedure was “one of the most agonizing things” she had ever experienced. Inevitably, the deeply personal disclosure soon dominated social media, with fans convinced that ‘Everytime’ was, in fact, a tribute to her lost, unborn child. They swiftly scanned the music video and performances for clues – and the evidence seems pretty convincing. In the end, the ‘Baby One More Time’ star went on to have two sons — Sean Preston, who is now 18, and Jayden James, who is 17 – with her ex-husband Kevin Federline. Meanwhile, Timberlake also has two sons – Silas, 8, and Phineas, 3 – with his wife Jessica Biel. The ‘Cry me a River’ idol had apparently been “concerned” about what Spears was going to write about him in her book, which will be released on 224 October. “It’s eating at him,” one insider told Page Six. Maybe now, to quote ‘Everytime’, it will haunt him, too. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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England manager Sarina Wiegman distinctly remembers the day she and her Netherlands team-mates checked into the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou, China to launch an experiment that would forever change women’s football. It was 1988, Wiegman was 18, and while men had been participating in World Cups for 58 years, a women’s equivalent existed only as an idea – one FIFA decided first needed to be tested in the form of a proof-of-concept, 12-team tournament at a time when even the now-dominant Americans had played just 22 matches. Thirty-five years later, Wiegman’s Lionesses are one of the favourites to win the ninth edition of a global championship that has expanded to 32 teams, boasts a $110million (£84.7m) prize pot, has already sold out the 80,000-plus seat Stadium Australia and is expected to draw about two billion viewers from around the world. Asked at England’s team hotel in Queensland if teenage Sarina could have ever envisioned what the World Cup has become, the now 53-year-old immediately replied: “No. No, no, absolutely not. Absolutely not. The whole, everything, it’s totally changed, and really quickly. “And even when I was older and I think maybe 20 years ago, I would not have ever expected or not even dreamed to be in this situation, that in women’s football we would be now where we are, or even that I would be in a situation where I am now. That’s why I enjoy it so much, too. “It’s because I am grateful that things have changed so quickly. There’s still a long way to go, but how it grew [and moved] so many steps forward, I’m just very grateful for that.” Though women’s international competitions had taken place before, the 1988 Women’s Invitation Tournament was the first sanctioned by FIFA. Wiegman recalls that the White Swan felt “so luxurious”, but her memories of the playing conditions are foggier. She explained: “I just wanted to play. I wasn’t bothered about pitches, [because] I wasn’t used to [them]. We didn’t have the facilities. So I found everything we had in the stadium, there were 20,000 people, and they were laughing when someone made a mistake or something, that was really strange because they had a totally different view of football than in Europe, but well, there wouldn’t be 20,000 people [in Europe] then.” The Netherlands were ultimately beaten 2-1 by Brazil in the quarter-finals, but the competition solidified Wiegman’s desired destiny and convinced FIFA that an inaugural Women’s World Cup should be hosted by the same Chinese province in 1991. Wiegman said: “I thought ‘this is what I want to do’, but there weren’t very many opportunities then. But I just really loved that tournament, I will never forget that tournament.” The former midfielder remains adamant that “I’m just me and doing what I love the most” yet it is no exaggeration to say the self-described “serious” Hague native, whose CV is an astonishing chronicle of unprecedented accomplishments, has had a critical impact on the history of her beloved sport in more than one country. Wiegman retired after earning 104 caps for the Netherlands – her career itself a feat for a girl who once chose to chop off her hair and disguise herself as a boy because she found herself barred from football because of her gender. Since then Wiegman transitioned from PE teacher to the pioneering first head coach of Eredivisie Vrouwen side ADO Den Haag – but only after refusing an initial offer of a part-time role and insisting their ambitions were only viable with full investment. Wiegman assisted then-Netherlands head coach Roger Reijners at the 2015 World Cup, shortly after which she became the first woman in her country to coach with a men’s professional club, Sparta Rotterdam. She took permanent charge of the Netherlands in 2017, six months before they won the European Championship. Two years later, they were World Cup runners-up. With England’s Euro 2022 triumph, Wiegman became the first head coach to win that competition with two different countries. We really need to keep telling them what our identity is and where we came from England manager Sarina Wiegman Now the Lionesses boss could lead her side to the World Cup title that has so far evaded them both, decades after she boarded that life-altering plane to China and paved the way for the next wave of football-mad women just like her. Of them, she added: “Oh yes, they’re very grateful. Absolutely, this generation – yes. I think the younger group will come, we really need to keep telling them what our identity is and where we came from, where we come from. So we know how it was, how it’s growing and where we are. I think that’s very important.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Benjamin Mendy weeps as he is cleared of sex charges Novak Djokovic clashes with umpire and fans on his way to latest Wimbledon final Michal Kwiatkowski holds off Tadej Pogacar to take solo win on Grand Colombier