Dramatic final line of Justin Timberlake's 'long letter' to Britney Spears after split

Britney Spears has revealed that after she split from Justin Timberlake, he gave her a ‘long letter’ with a particularly dramatic final line.

Britney, 41, has released a tell-all memoir about ‘freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope’ - and she’s not holding back, having even spilled the tea on her relationship with Justin Timberlake, who she was with between 1999 and 2002.

In one part, she recalls how he broke up with her via text message, saying he’d been ‘very standoffish’ with her when he started making his first solo album Justified.

“I think that was because he’d decided to use me as ammunition for his record, and so it make it awkward for him to be around me staring at him with all that affection and devotion,” Britney said.

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“Ultimately, he ended our relationship by text message while I was on the set for the video for the ‘Overprotected’ remix by Darkchild.”

Immediately after seeing the message in her trailer, she had to ‘go back out and dance’.

Britney continued: “For as much as Justin hurt me, there was a huge foundation of love, and when he left me I was devastated.

“When I say devastated, I mean I could barely speak for months. Whenever anyone asked me about him, all I could do was cry. I don’t know if I was clinically in shock, but it felt that way.

“Everyone who knew me thought something was wrong with me. I went back home to Kentwood, and I couldn’t talk to my family or friends. I barely left the house.

“I was just that messed up. I lay in my bed and stared at the ceiling.”

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The star said her ex eventually ended up flying out to visit her, handing her a letter that she still has to this day under her bed – no doubt still in good nick, as he’d even taken the care to FRAME it.

“Justin flew out to Louisiana to visit me,” Britney said.

“He brought me a long letter he’d written and framed. I still have it under my bed.

“And at the end it said – it makes me want to cry to think about it - ‘I can’t breathe without you.’ Those are the last words in it.

“Reading that, I thought, Damn. He’s a good writer. Because that was exactly how I felt. It almost felt like I was suffocating, like I couldn’t breathe, after all that happened.

“The thing is, though, even after I saw him and read the letter, I didn’t come out of the trance. He did all that, he came there to see me, and I still couldn’t talk – to him or anybody.”

Britney's book The Woman in Me is out now.