Justin Timberlake Reveals Britney Spears Did Not Inspire 'What Goes Around… Comes Around'

Justin Timberlake is dispelling a longstanding rumor about the origins of one of his hit songs ... and apparently it was never about Britney Spears.

Speaking with Complex's "Re-Rank" show ... JT said the song "What Goes Around... Comes Around" was "actually a personal story from a friend's" that he got permission to use.

He added ... "He was just going through it, and he was telling me what had happened, and said, 'Do you mind if I write about this?' And I quote, my friend said, 'Yeah, torch that bitch. What goes around comes around.' And I was like, 'I have to go, thank you.' He was like, 'What?' I was like, ‘I got it.’"

After hanging up the phone with his pal ... Justin said it took only 20 minutes to write the hit.

The 2006 hit came with much speculation that it was about JT's ex Britney Spears ... including rumors that it was a follow-up to his 2002 banger "Cry Me a River."

Now "Cry Me a River" may be a different matter ... as Justin hasn't said one way or another if Britney inspired it or not.

Without naming her ... Justin wrote in his 2018 book "Hindsight: & All the Things I Can't See in Front of Me" about the songwriting process ... "I've been scorned. I've been pissed off. I wrote 'Cry Me a River' in two hours. I didn't plan on writing it."