Will Justin Timberlake’s DWI Arrest, In His Own Words, “Ruin the Tour”?

In an anecdote from Justin Timberlake’s June 18 DWI arrest in the Hamptons that almost reads more like fiction than fact (but apparently is just that—fact), Timberlake’s arresting officer apparently had no clue who the 10-time Grammy winner was, and after being arrested, “Justin said under his breath, ‘This is going to ruin the tour,’” a source told Page Six. “The cop replied, ‘What tour?’ Justin said, ‘The world tour.’”

This exchange has taken the internet by storm, and raised a valid question: is Timberlake’s The Forget Tomorrow World Tour—which kicked off on April 29 in Vancouver and is scheduled to run until December 20 in Kansas City—going to, in fact, be ruined? 

The tour—Timberlake’s first in five years—last stopped in Miami on June 15, with the next show scheduled for tomorrow, June 21, in Chicago. He will play a second Chicago show the next night, then has two shows in New York City, two shows in Boston, and stops in Baltimore; Hershey, Pennsylvania; Cleveland; and Lexington, Kentucky before taking the tour international, with a date scheduled for July 26 in Krakow, Poland, which is also the same day Timberlake is due back in court in New York. But more on that later.

Well, so far at least, it seems the show will, indeed, go on, as the old adage says. Page Six reports Timberlake is “pressing forward” with the tour after he was pulled over and arrested on Long Island, New York after leaving The American Hotel in Sag Harbor. Timberlake, according to Us Weekly, was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated—and rejected taking a breathalyzer test.

“The charge was a single count because he refused the breath test,” Timberlake’s lawyer, Ed Burke, told Us Weekly in a statement. “Mr. Timberlake was also charged with two other court citations, running a stop sign and not traveling in the correct traffic lane.” 

As previously mentioned, Timberlake will face the music in a court date scheduled for July 26—although how that will impact the international leg of his tour remains unclear. The officer who initiated the traffic stop also noted that Timberlake’s “eyes were bloodshot and glassy,” but, thankfully, in the incident “Nobody was hurt,” a source speaking to People said.

Per court documents obtained by CNN, Timberlake allegedly told authorities that he “had one martini, and I followed my friends home.” The outlet reported of Timberlake that there was “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath.” (According to The Daily Beast, said martini in question was what’s called a “Vesper,” which a source described as “all alcohol” with “no mixer.”)

Later on Tuesday, the Sag Harbor Police Department released Timberlake’s mugshot and a statement addressing his arrest, confirming that on June 18 at 12:37 a.m., Timberlake—driving a 2025 BMW—was found to be operating it under the influence and thereby “placed under arrest, processed, and held overnight for morning arraignment,” the statement read. He was released “on his own recognizance” after his court appearance.

Timberlake’s wife of nearly 12 years, Jessica Biel, “seemed unbothered” as she filmed her new show, The Better Sister, in New York City on Tuesday, the day of the arrest. (The couple married in 2012 and share two sons, Silas and Phineas.) Unbothered though she may have appeared, sources told People that she sees her husband’s arrest as a “distraction” and that “she’s not happy” about it: “She had to film yesterday,” they said. “She doesn’t like any attention on the family, especially not negative.” Biel also appeared “tired” and “very focused on filming” but, that said, Biel “loves” Timberlake, they said, and “will always be by his side,” they added. 

Meanwhile, Timberlake’s ex Britney Spears—whom he dated from 1999 to 2002—shared a cryptic post on Instagram that some perceived to be celebratory in nature about Timberlake’s arrest. The singer toasted to “the little things” on Tuesday, the same day that news of Timberlake’s arrest broke. “Her Instagram post featured two images—one, a cocktail garnished with a maraschino cherry, and the other of her legs stretched out and sitting next to a pool,” Us Weekly writes. “In a subsequent post, she showed off her ‘first cocktail dress ever.’”  

Once again—it all reads more like fiction than fact but, as the saying goes, the truth is often stranger than any fiction could ever be.