Britney Spears drops surprising admission about ex Justin Timberlake

She’s barely spoken of her ex in 20 years – but Britney just shocked her fans with this candid admission.

Britney Spears has surprised fans by name-dropping ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake on her Instagram account, declaring him a “genius” while acknowledging their “big break-up”.

And it appears Brit even had second thoughts about the candid admission, deleting her initial post before changing her mind and reposting it hours later.

Sharing a video of herself dancing to Timberlake’s song “Filthy”, Spears wrote: This is my version of Snapchat or TikTok or whatever the cool thing you’re supposed to do these days! As you can see I’m not really dancing folks … I’m just very bored.”

“PS I know we had one of the world’s biggest breakups 20 years ago … but hey the man is a genius! Great song JT!”

She’s not wrong: Britney and Justin were arguably music’s most famous couple when they dated for three years at the height of his N’Sync fame and her teen-pop years.

Just months after their split in 2002, Timberlake released the bitter break-up album Cry Me A River, complete with a Britney lookalike in the video.

Who kept the denim after the break-up?

Since then, relations between the former couple have been few and far between – but it seems Spears, at least, is still a fan.

Spears, who married twice after she broke up with Timberlake, is now in a relationship with personal trainer Sam Asghari.

Timberlake enjoyed high-profile relationships with stars including Cameron Diaz, Kate ­Hudson, Scarlett Johansson and Alyssa Milano after Spears. He’s been married to actress Jessica Biel since 2012 – but was at the centre of a scandal last year when he was photographed holding hands with his latest co-star during a boozy night out.