A break to catch up forever: The truth about the enduring love of Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake

It did not look good for Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.

The tabloid-loving couple broke up after nearly four years of dating, and JT was mulling over whether eternal relationships were possible because people might not be the same six months later, let alone ten. years later

"We talked a bit about marriage," Timberlake told a cousin and a friend in the presence of Vanity Fair in 2011, a few months after the breakup, the market became public. "I said that I think the mistake is that people are committed to who this person is, not the person they will become. To stay together, but to change together. "

"When you say it like that, it seems almost impossible, no?"

Presentation, Mr. and Mrs. Evolution.

TimberBiel was formed for the first time at the time of the paparazzi control 24 hours a day, 7 days out of 7, which, although it did not leave, left its place on the 39 Social Media Highway, where the celebrities themselves can get ahead of the story and baby pictures. Or, in some cases, their statements of joint separation.

The first years together of Justin and Jessica, as the headlines say, were riddled with misleading rumors and other crazy speculations about why or not, they were about to part. Until they actually did it. They tried to be very professional about it, publishing a statement confirming that they had separated into friends, but the quest for answers was still following its natural course, with or without the idea that it was a good thing. help from Biel or Timberlake.

"I would prefer not to talk to her because it's hurtful for me," Timberlake said. VF. "It's unfortunate that even if you make the effort to say something, what I've tried to do, people are doing what they want." I do not want to say more, because that I have to protect things that are dear to me -For example, she is the most important person in my life.In my 30 years, she is the most special person, OK? someone who shows me what would be more rewarding in this respect the point, that's what I have to do. "

He said that, out of respect for his colleagues and for what they were going through, he did not "look under the size of anyone" in the queue at the supermarket because it is there that the tabloids were exposed.

Before starting a high-level relationship after another, first with Britney Spears so what Cameron Diaz Before Biel, Timberlake had at least decided not to say anything about his private life.

"I no longer like to comment on my personal life," said Justin, then 19, politely. Rolling stone in 2000. "Everything is disproportionate.I have been in the tabloids and I do not appreciate it.If I decide to maintain a personal relationship with someone, I think that's something that I do not like. it's best to keep it personal. "

He first met Biel, who Squire Named "Sexiest Woman Alive" in 2005, at a surprise party in Hollywood – a treat that he revealed in his new memoir, The recoil and everything I can not see in front of meTimberlake having chosen to pack at least some of its content for public consumption. He and the missus are so far beyond that now, anyway, why not share how their love story, which was ultimately extremely fruitful, had its true beginning?

Justin made a dry joke, Jessica was the only one to laugh. They danced for Madonnais "Lucky Star". And then she left in the night.

"It was not the moment" to ask for his number, remembered Timberlake.

Then, in January 2007, Biel went to the first show of his FutureSex / LoveSounds tour in San Diego, California, with friends, and they all went backstage afterwards. Timberlake traveled north to Anaheim and asked the group if he wanted to return to Los Angeles. They agreed, he and Biel talked all the time and then he had his number.

"I did it the old way – by phone," Timberlake told the Hollywood foreign press at a press conference in 2012 (via We weekly) "This is something I learned from my father-in-law and my grandfather – that there is one thing called chivalry and that it does not have to die with the birth of the internet.In my opinion, if you ask a girl to go out a date, it's just to do it in such a way that she can hear your voice.I had to be persevering enough to to make her say yes, but I have a good dose of tenacity and if I want something that I want, And in the end she accepted. "(Ironically, years later, according to rumor, he l & rsquo; Would also have thrown on the phone.)

A week later, they saw each other at the Golden Globes.

"I was there, like, at the moment when the love connection occurred," Biel 7th Sky costar Beverley Mitchell recalled on Access Hollywood Live last year. "I said to myself, OK, that's what's happening." She added: "It was so cute because they were – it's that time: & # 39; I like you, I think you like me well. It was very very nice. They were really flirting. They were really cute. "

From that point on, they were actually in a relationship. Casually.

In fact, in the spring of 2007, Scarlett Johansson was asked about rumors she was dating Timberlake, and she said Seventeen"If it 's somebody a week, it' ll be sometime next week – it's me or Jessica Biel."

Busted!

"We were both watching other people, protecting us from the possibility of hurting ourselves, not really falling behind," recalls Timberlake in the book. "It took a bit of time to admit to ourselves that it was really one for the other.When I returned from the tour, we spent a month together. that, I said: "I really want to be exclusive" And, one way or another, she said, "Me too."

"We did not kiss for a long time because he was on tour and we were talking on the phone," Biel told the newspaper. The late parade with James Corden last year. But she always optimistically told her production partner Michelle Purple in an email that she was getting married to him. She does not remember what he did to deserve such approval that day, but she still has email.

And so, they settled into a comfortable routine of conviviality, making trips, attending Met Galas and doing the domestic trick at their various bases.

When long term relationships do not work for any reason, it is assumed that one or the other, but usually the woman, wanted to get married and that the other could not force . This is of course what has been suggested about Bienne on the road, but the 7th Sky The star certainly does not seem to be in a hurry early.

"I'm going back and forth on marriage and children," she said in the December 2008 issue of Marie Claire UK. "I feel as if it's an organic way for me and the good time of my life so, yes, if it's just, it'll be right – but right now, it seems totally alien." I have so many friends who have babies and get married and they just want to put me where they are so we can go to nursery together and stuff .I am like "Noooo!" I resist ! "

And although they did not refuse occasional photo opportunities on the red carpet, they respected each other's privacy.

In 2009, the adventurous couple turned to heli-boarding. Biel, who had already parachuted with an ex Chris Evans-Explained at an appearance in June in The Late Show with David Letterman about what they were watching when Dave was showing an aerial photo of his maiden trip to Telluride, Colorado (they repeated the same thing). feat during a trip to Iceland last year).

The next picture she had to explain was mainly that of Timberlake who was bending over for a big hug and a kiss during a Lakers game. "Are you there somewhere?" Dave was joking.

"It's my boyfriend and they got us on the 'Kiss Me Cam' … I mean, it's such a ham …" says Biel laughing, while the next picture showed how Timberlake tried to get on his lap. "Who does not want to be in front of 18,000 people?" she concluded.

And while Biel was there, Dave thought that they could also talk a little bit about their relationship. "Go ahead, you start," he snapped.

"Yes, we go out together," she confirmed, noting that it was "a few years." She even said at that time that there were a lot of phone conversations before the meeting really began. "Oh, yes," Letterman snapped. "You are the worst!" she reprimanded him, gently taking him on the arm. "PG phone conversations!"

In May 2010, they attended their second consecutive Met Gala, then to Timberlake, which plunged into promoting The social network, in which he played Napster co-founder, Sean Parker. Also this year he had Yogi Bear, featuring him as Boo Boo's voice coming out, and he was doing Friends with benefits with Mila Kunis, At the hour with Amanda Seyfriedand Olivia Wild and Bad teacher with Diaz.

Biel also released two films in 2010, Team A and Garry Marshall& # 39; rom-com set Valentine's dayand then she brought Marshall together to do New Year's Eve and started to align the movies left and right.

All the ingredients of a stress on a relationship.

In March 2011, representatives of the pair issued a joint statement confirming their breakup.

"By responding to media speculation about the relationship between Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake, we confirm that they have mutually decided to separate," reads the statement. "Both remain friends and continue to have the highest level of love and respect for each other."

Cue the post mortem.

"As a naturally career-oriented person, it's easy for me to understand this character, to grasp this problem and to make it the obstacle that he's trying to overcome," he said. he declared. Vanity Fair a few months later, referring to the workaholic's commitment-phobe that he played in Friends with benefits, which came out in July.

But in reality, it did not seem so phobic.

He acknowledged that he had thought about marriage and that he wanted to start a family.

"And just six months ago, I would not even have thought of it, but now it's like being in a nearby planet orbiting around," he said.

Boom. He managed to get Biel back – probably starting with an old-fashioned phone call – and suggested that December be located in the middle of the magnificent snowy mountains of Jackson, in the Wyo.

"It's a really, really, really special person," said Timberlake in October 2012 at the HFPA. Problems with the curve a week before their wedding. "Besides, she's really, really hot!"

"I am now responding to a higher power," he joked. "We have two rules in our relationship, the first rule is that I let her feel that she has everything in. The second rule is that I'm really letting her take care of everything, and up to now. , it works."

Against all odds – Hollywood, tabloids, schedules, history – Biel and Timberlake got married at one of these fairytale weddings in Italy on October 19, 2012. The bride was wearing a fabulous dress blushing Giambattista Valli, a good friend. "It was a bit of a leap at the time," said Biel later She, also describing the whole institution of marriage, "but it turned out better than I ever imagined … I felt elegant, and it moved like a dream." As for the groom, who composed a song and sung it while Biel was walking down the alley …

"I called Tom Ford," he writes in Hindsight. "I knew I would only get married once in my life and wanted to look in a certain way Tom agreed to dress me and my boys, which was finally his wedding present for me.He just did it for all of us.It's the kind of person he is.Then he came on tour … We were many and Tom Ford has dressed us all: me, the dancers, the children of Tennessee, the whole group. "

Frankly, their story is all the more romantic as it has since lived happily ever after.

"I think it's important to remember that you're considering a wedding, knowing that you do not know much about it," Timberlake also told HFPA in 2012. "But I'm looking at the marriage of my mother and father-in-law, and what makes it work for them is that it's a team effort. "

He continued: "Some days are better than others for all of us – and if we have our good and bad days individually, and then we have to deal with the good and bad days of someone else." Another, he will add My mother is a fireball in the world and I love it from her.But what I learned from my father-in-law is something of 39. Also important, which is patience and compassion, because when you live with someone else, these two qualities go a long way. "

Rumors that things were not going well for both couples, even once they were husband and wife, did not leave at the same time, but they managed to block the noise.

And in 2014, as Timberlake 's 20/20 world tour began, Biel informed him of what else was still a call (at least on FaceTime at that time). They were going to have a baby.

"I had just finished a show and I get into my car and take out my phone," he writes in Hindsight. "There was a text of Jess, in all capital letters, which read:" Call me now. "I immediately told her that her face was full and that I knew exactly what she was going to say. Instead, she just delayed the pregnancy test and we both started crying, being at home and taking care of my family. "

They welcomed the son Silas in April 2015.

"Until I become a father," says Timberlake, "I thought I had fears, now I understand that I do not have to defeat my fears, I just have to learn to live with them. Sunlight to erase that shadow, I know it's always going to be there.All you do and as an adult is trying to cure everything you've built since your childhood.C & # 39; Is your shadow that follows you only the moment a shadow disappears when you enter the darkness, and then you learn to withdraw, and now I can finally see the relationship between all that, and that's all. is beautiful, in all its ugliness, it is beautiful, I calm it. "

He also says that being a parent "made me look at relationships in a new way." It made me think of who my parents are as people, and in fact what that affected me at the time and contributed to what I am now – and how all this could affect my child.This makes me wonder how my son will see me when he grows up. makes you want to be more thoughtful. "

Mission accomplished.

Biel, who returned to television last year as an American producer and actor The fisherman, has been nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy, and Timberlake has been created for the most enthusiastic cheers section at every stage of the process.

If she wins, "I could be odious," Justin teased E! Giuliana Rancic on the Emmys red carpet in September. "I could do something unpleasant … I'm very good in unpleasant smell!"

"I hope nothing less than, really, really inappropriate," Biel agreed.

"I'm crazier than her," added Timberlake. "I saw how much she put inside. I am so proud to be here and to see that happen for her. "

AT Marie ClaireBiel said last year: "We have similar values, we believe in loyalty, honesty, we love to have fun, we like the same things, and in the industry we are all very career-oriented and you have to be a little selfish, which I understand from my peers – to stay focused and motivated – and if you can find that and someone who shares the same values ​​as you, this 39 is like: Score! "

But Timberlake knows when to give the show.

"With Justin, he's so happy for me," she told ELLE.com last summer. The fisherman created. "I always say that he's my biggest fan."

This support works both ways, of course. On his birthday, just days before his performance at the Super Bowl LII Halle Lime Show in February, Biel wrote Timberlake a supreme note of confidence, adding, "I love you, sexy daddy … to your sides, OG No. 1 fan girl. "

And perhaps, as she noted, their most spectacular year to date.

"I'm fascinated by her, she's everything, man," Timberlake writes in his book. "She constantly surprises me with who she is and what she is becoming, I really hope to be able to do the same for her." I can not wait to see what she's going to do by I wake up and look at it, and I'm inspired. "

Fans – of Justin, Jessica, love, commitment, balance – look at these two and, without a doubt, they are also inspired.