The singer reportedly told police this would “ruin” his world tour.
Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving while intoxicated after leaving a hotel in Long Island, New York, in the early morning hours of June 18.
A police report about the incident indicates that Timberlake, driving a 2025 BMW, departed the American Hotel in Sag Harbor and was spotted “failing to stop at a duly posted stop sign and failing to maintain his lane of travel” at 12:37 a.m. “A traffic stop was initiated by a Police Officer from the Sag Harbor Village Police Department, and upon investigation, it was determined that Mr. Timberlake was operating his vehicle in an intoxicated condition,” the report continued.
Police say Timberlake refused a chemical sobriety test three times. He demonstrated “slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests.” Timberlake told the officers he’d been at dinner with friends, where he claimed to have “one martini, and I followed my friends home.” Those friends reportedly showed up to the scene in an attempt to convince cops to let Timberlake go, but he was ultimately handcuffed and taken into custody.
A witness who spoke to The New York Post indicated that Timberlake seemed to have had more than just one martini. “He was wasted,” the source said. “At one point, just before closing, somebody got up to go to the bathroom and left his drink on the table. When [the man] came back, [Timberlake] was drinking his drink. The guy goes, ‘Justin, that’s my drink!'”
The Post also reported that the arresting officer was too young to recognize Timberlake’s face or his name, but the pop star allegedly did reference his fame during the traffic stop. “This is going to ruin the tour,” Timberlake apparently said, to which police responded, “What tour?” Timerlake answered “the world tour” — a reference to his Forget Tomorrow World Tour, which kicked off in April and is scheduled to run through December.
After being taken into custody, Timberlake was released on his own recognizance before being arraigned in Sag Habor at 9:30 a.m. the morning of his arrest. A formal hearing has been scheduled for July 26.
Timberlake’s lawyer, Edward Burke Jr., told HuffPost that he looks forward to “vigorously defending” his client. “[Timberlake] will have a lot to say at the appropriate time,” the attorney said.
The DWI incident, which generated headlines around the country, is the latest in a string of less-than-desirable press for the singer, who was once one of America’s most beloved pop stars. After making a name for himself with NSYNC in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Timberlake became a successful solo artist, racking up a string of No. 1 hits that included “SexyBack,” “What Goes Around… Comes Around,” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling.”
But in recent years, his shine has dulled in the public eye. In 2019, he was caught on video holding hands with a female costar in New Orleans, prompting rumors of cheating on his wife, Jessica Biel, with whom he shares two children. He’s also taken heat as cultural commentators have in recent years reevaluated the scandal surrounding the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime Show, during which Timberlake ripped off part of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe, exposing her breast.
Timberlake’s reputation suffered further with the publication of Britney Spears’s blockbuster memoir The Woman in Me, in which Spears revealed Timberlake encouraged her to get an abortion she didn’t want, cheated on her, and then ended their relationship with a text message reading “It’s over!” After much online criticism about his past behavior (and questions about whether he should publicly apologize for it), Timberlake drew more headlines when he appeared onstage earlier this year and declared he wanted to “take this opportunity to apologize — to absolutely f—ing nobody.”
Timberlake released his latest album, Everything I Thought It Was, in March, six years after his last record. The new music received mixed reviews from critics and drummed up more bad press — Forbes reported that the album was “off to an embarrassing start” when it debuted to surprisingly weak numbers on Spotify.
