Justin Timberlake was arraigned Tuesday on a charge of driving while intoxicated in the Hamptons, cited for running a stop sign and has since been released, several news outlets reported.
The singer, 43, was arrested early Tuesday in Sag Harbor, according to Newsday and ABC’s Good Morning America. A representative for the Sag Harbor Police Department told People that the singer was handcuffed and taken into custody.
TMZ reported that Timberlake was arraigned on one count of driving while intoxicated, and cited for running a stop sign.
Sources told TMZ that the “Selfish” singer went to meet friends at the American Hotel in Sag Harbor for dinner and “partying,” then left around 12:30 a.m. and got into his car to drive back to where he was staying. Police pulled Timberlake over “almost immediately” after he took the wheel, with sources also telling TMZ he ran a stop sign and was swerving while driving.
During the traffic stop, law enforcement sources told TMZ that police observed that Timberlake was glassy-eyed, and they smelled alcohol on his breath. Timberlake also failed the field sobriety test when asked to do a one-legged stand and a walk and turn, TMZ reported. Timberlake, however, refused to take a breathalyzer test, TMZ said.
Several of Timberlake’s friends came on scene and tried to convince police to cut him a break, but officers refused. Justin was handcuffed and arrested, and TMZ reported it’s “all on body cam.”
A representative for Timberlake did not immediately respond to requests for comment from People or TMZ.
Timberlake is currently on tour for his “Forget Tomorrow” tour, which features hits from his career, as well as from his new album, “Everything I Thought It Was.” He is scheduled to perform in Chicago Friday and Saturday night, then return to New York for performances at Madison Square Garden next week.
Unfortunately for Timberlake, “Everything I Thought It Was,” his sixth solo album, has been met with an usual amount of critical dismissal as well as weaker than usual sales, becoming his first solo release to miss No. 1 since “Justified” in 2002 the New York Times reported in March.
The album has shaped up to be Timberlake’s “first real bomb,” according to this news organization’s music critic, Jim Harrington. After being released in March, the album had already fallen out of the Billboard 200 by May, when the gifted performer put on an energetic show in San Jose that was marred by a “mediocre” songbook.
Once one of the most prominent male stars in American pop music, he has “become something of a musical afterthought in recent years,” the Times also said.
Some of Timberlake’s declining popularity has to do with his musical choices, but he’s also faced a larger social-cultural backlash in the wake of public re-evaluations of his relationship with Britney Spears, and how he navigated the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show incident that sent Janet Jackson into exile and largely left him unscathed, the Times also said.
In her 2023 memoir, “The Woman in Me,” Spears wrote that Timberlake’s video for his 2002 hit song, “Cry Me a River” unfairly painted her as a villain after the end of her and Timberlake’s extremely public relationship. Timberlake and Spears dated from 1999 to 2002 after first meeting as preteens on the set of “The Mickey Mouse Club.”
The “Cry Me a River” video featured a devastated-looking Timberlake invading the home of his unfaithful ex-girlfriend, who bears a resemblance to Spears. The “Toxic” singer said it bolstered the impression that she cheated on Timberlake and turned her into a “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy.”
Spears’ memoir also revealed that she had a secret abortion she didn’t want when they were dating because he, at age 19, was “so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.” Spears also described Timberlake cringingly attempting to soothe her in the aftermath of the abortion by singing to her.
Moreover, she described a moment when Timberlake comes off as “oblivious and entitled,” as one critic said. This is when he runs into the R&B singer Ginuwine and greets him by saying, “Oh yeah, fo’ shiz, fo’ shiz. Ginuwine! What’s up, homie?”
This story will be updated.
