Co-writer clarifies meaning behind Britney Spears song after fans thought it alluded to singer's abortion

A song writer, who co-wrote Britney Spears' 2003 hit 'Everytime' has clarified the meaning behind the song, despite fans' theories.

Spears recently claimed she underwent an abortion during her relationship with Justin Timberlake between 1999 and 2002, in her forthcoming memoir The Woman in Me.

Since the revelation was made public, fans have begun theorizing whether the 2003 song, which has long been believed to be about her relationship with the NSYNC frontman, also makes subtle references to the abortion.

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However, Annet Artani, who co-wrote the song with Spears, has since put the claims to bed, insisting the song was purely about the breakups they had both recently experienced, especially Artani's, TMZ reports.

At the time the ballad was written, Spears and Timberlake had been broken up for around nine months, while Artani had just recently split from Spears' musical director.

Artani has since revealed that she and Spears would sit around the piano commiserating over each other's breakups, claiming the 'Baby One More Time' singer never mentioned a pregnancy or an abortion.

When asked about a specific line in the chorus, 'I see your face, you're haunting me', the songwriter said they simply used the word 'haunting' as they needed a word that rhymed, which makes perfect sense.

Britney Spears / YouTube

What is a little less clear, however, is why Spears chose to use visuals of a woman giving birth and woman dying in the music video for the song, however, Artani was not involved in the video process so could offer no comment on this.

In her memoir, Spears wrote: "It was a surprise, but for me, it wasn’t a tragedy. I loved Justin so much. I always expected us to have a family together one day. This would just be much earlier than I’d anticipated.

"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."

Describing the 'agonizing' decision to get an abortion, she made the implication that she did so because Timberlake apparently wanted her to.

"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," Spears wrote.

"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."

The Woman in Me is set for release on 24 October.