Britney 'Fighting Tears' For Justin

Britney Spears is desperate to offer support to her childhood sweetheart Justin Timberlake after he was arrested for drink-driving, a source tells new

- Indigo Stafford

Britney Spears was “frantic with worry” after hearing that Justin Timberlake had been arrested for drink-driving, new has been told. The Toxic singer, 42, was said to be desperate to show her support and “welling up with tears” after she heard that her ex-boyfriend had spent the night in a police cell in New York.

Justin was arrested on 19 June. The singer, 43, is due back in court on 26 July charged with a driving while intoxicated misdemeanour.

Our source says, “She’s putting a brave face on it in public, but Britney was frantic when she heard what happened. It was all she could talk about. She was very worried about Justin and how he is handling this.

“Thinking of Justin in handcuffs – and seeing his mugshot on TV – was hard for Britney to take. She was on the phone to a mutual friend immediately. She was fighting back the tears. She said that picturing Justin in a police cell broke her heart in two.

“There’s obviously a lot of water under the bridge between them, but Britney knows that deep down he is a good person and he has been under a huge amount of pressure with his current tour.”

Despite everything they have been through, Justin will always be Britney’s childhood sweetheart. They met as 13-year-olds, when both were members of Disney’s The All-New Mickey Mouse Club TV show, which also launched the careers of Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling.

In her memoir The Woman In Me, Britney writes about how the child stars began secretly dating as teens. In 2001, they went public with their relationship, wearing their now-infamous matching denim ensembles to the American Music Awards.