Britney Spears’ brief 2003 fling with Colin Farrell was so hot and heavy that she compares it to a “brawl” in her upcoming memoir, The Woman in Me.
“Brawl is the only word for it — we were all over each other, grappling so passionately it was like we were in a street fight,” Spears, 41, writes, according to an excerpt of the memoir published by Time on Thursday, October 19.
Spears made the first move with Farrell, now 47. A source tells Us Weekly that she writes about having the “balls” to drive on to the set of his movie S.W.A.T., which is where they met. She also details attending The Recruit premiere — and wearing a “full-blown pajama top” on the red carpet.
Farrell, however, shut down any hint of a romance at the time. “We’re not dating. She’s a sweet, sweet girl,” he told reporters. “There’s nothing going on — just mates.”
Spears and Farrell’s fling followed her split from Justin Timberlake, whom she dated from 1999 to 2002.
In her memoir, Spears goes into detail about her relationship with Timberlake, now 42, and their tumultuous split. Per an excerpt of the book obtained by People, Spears revealed that she had an abortion while dating Timberlake.
“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 wrote. “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.”
Elsewhere in the book, she refers to her ex as “a girl’s dream,” revealing in Time’s excerpt, “I was in love with him.” She wanted to move on with Farrell after she and Timberlake had “officially” broken up, but Spears admits she wasn’t fully over the boybander.
“As I had before when I’d felt too attached to a man, I tried to convince myself in every way that it was not a big deal, that we were just having fun, that in this case, I was vulnerable because I wasn’t over Justin yet,” Spears writes in the excerpt, noting that there was a “brief moment” where she thought something could transpire between herself and Farrell. (She also confesses to having Timberlake’s breakup letter framed to this day.)
When questioned about her and Farrell’s relationship in 2003, Spears downplayed the connection between them.
“Yes, I kissed him … He’s the cutest, hottest thing in the world — wooh!” she told W Magazine at the time. “But it was nothing serious.”
The Woman in Me hits bookstores on Tuesday, October 24.
