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Justin Timberlake “feels” guilty after being photographed holding hands and getting his knee stroked by co-star Alisha Wainwright at a bar in New Orleans on Saturday night, sources are telling E! News and other outlets.
Sources also are suggesting that this public display of affection with Wainwright doesn’t mean anything romantic is going on between the two. And it certainly doesn’t mean Timberlake has reverted to the behavior that reportedly led to him and Jessica Biel, his then-girlfriend and current wife, breaking up in 2011. The behavior included rumored affairs, including a widely reported “fling” with actress Olivia Munn in 2010.
“He had too much to drink and got carried away,” a source told E! News about the 38-year-old pop singer’s interactions with Wainwright.
Timberlake certainly looked inebriated and unsteady on his feet in photos and video published by the tabloid The Sun over the weekend.
In the images, Timberlake and Wainwright, 30, are seen sitting on a balcony. At times Wainwright can be seen resting her hand on Timberlake’s knee. A closeup also shows Timberlake holding Wainwright’s hand.
Photos are going viral of Justin Timberlake getting cozy with his ‘Palmer’ co-star Alisha Wainwright, with many accusing him of cheating on wife Jessica Biel. 💔 https://t.co/Mb28Hd4Nqv
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 24, 2019
Another “insider” told E! said that Timberlake and Biel are trying to “laugh it off as nothing.” Other sources also have told multiple outlets that the PDA between Timberlake and Wainwright was “completely innocent.” The two are co-starring as lovers in the movie “Palmer,” which they have been filming in New Orleans.
But the insider also acknowledged that Timberlake’s behavior was definitely “inappropriate and something that would make my wife uncomfortable.”
What sources are not coming out and addressing directly is that some Biel and Timberlake fans are wondering if they are seeing a repeat of what happened to the couple’s relationship in 2010 and 2011.
Back in October 2010, Us Weekly reported that Timberlake was living a “double life” and cheated on Biel by having a three-day fling with Munn — after he “had been telling people it’s over with Jessica.”
Timberlake and Biel called it quits the following spring, with Us Weekly quoting sources in March 2011 who said that Timberlake “hadn’t been happy” with Biel for quite some time.
When Timberlake broke up with Biel at the time, he also failed to mention “his rampant affairs with other women,” Us Weekly also reported.
“He didn’t admit he was cheating even though we all knew it,” an insider told Us Weekly.
But Timberlake deeply regretted losing Biel, as he suggested to Vanity Fair for a June 2011 cover story, titled “A Free Man in L.A.” He described their breakup as too “hurtful” to talk about and called Biel, “singlehandedly the most significant person in my life.”
A month later, Timberlake and Biel were back together, and by the end of 2011 he had proposed. They married in October 2012 and together have a son, 4-year-old Silas. The Daily News reported in 2013 that Biel insisted on a “lifestyle prenup” with Timberlake that included language that said she would receive $500,000 if he was caught cheating.
Have things been as smooth and happy for them as their regular Instagram tributes to each other would want their fans to believe?
“Depends on how you see it,” wrote Elaine Lui at Lainey Gossip. “There are some people out there who aren’t bothered by JT getting messy while on location and photographed suggestively with a colleague. They say they wouldn’t be concerned about their partners being attracted to a co-star; they see this at most as harmless flirting. They believe that marriages are built on trust …”
Sources close to Timberlake and Biel are definitely trying to present Timberlake’s interactions with Wainwright as “harmless flirting,” if even that.
“It’s a balcony with a group of people and it was definitely nothing happening,” a source told People. “He’s down there shooting (his film) ‘Palmer,’ they’re starring in the movie together and they’re cool and everybody was just hanging out.”
The sources talking to People, E! and other outlets also are trying to present Timberlake and Biel as enjoying a marriage that is indeed “built on trust.”
Timberlake and Wainwright were seen returning to work on Monday, and sources told E! News that Timberlake and Biel are “going to move on from this.”
“Their marriage will survive. He feels guilty and will make it up to her,” a source told E! “She is very good to him and he knows how lucky he is. He says it was not a big deal, they were all hanging out together and that’s the end of the story.”
