SAG HARBOR, N.Y. — Pop star Justin Timberlake was charged with drunken driving early Tuesday in a village in the Hamptons, New York. Police said he violated a stop sign and swerved out of his lane in this posh summer seaside retreat.
According to court documents, the boy band singer turned solo star and actor was driving a 2025 BMW in Sag Harbor about 12:30 a.m. when an officer stopped him and determined he was intoxicated.
“His eyes were red and glassy, his breath smelled strongly of alcohol, he was unable to concentrate, his speech was slurred, his feet were unsteady, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,” court documents state.
According to the documents, Timberlake, 43, told the officer he had a martini and was heading home with some friends. After he was arrested, he was taken to a nearby police station in East Hampton, where he refused to submit to a breath test, court papers said, describing his occupation as “professional” and saying he was “self-employed.”
The 10-time Grammy winner was released without bail after being arraigned Tuesday morning in Sag Harbor. He has been charged with driving under the influence and his next court date is set for July 26, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.
Timberlake’s attorney and representatives did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.
The young Timberlake began performing as a Disney Mouseketeer, where his co-stars included future girlfriend Britney Spears. He rose to fame in the huge boy band NSYNC, launched a solo recording career in 2002 and was one of pop’s most influential figures in the early 2000s.
A master of pop and R&B accents, he is known for such Grammy-winning hits as “Cry Me a River”, “SexyBack”, “What Goes Around… Comes Around” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” He has performed at the Super Bowl halftime show several times, including the infamous 2004 “wardrobe malfunction” moment when he tore off a piece of Janet Jackson’s dress, exposing her bare nipple.
The incident led to Jackson being kicked off the Grammy telecast a week later. In a 2022 documentary, he said what happened was an accident and that he and Timberlake remain good friends.
Timberlake also pursued an acting career, receiving praise in films such as “The Social Network” and “Friends with Benefits” and winning four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Last year, Timberlake was back in the spotlight when Spears released her memoir, “The Woman in Me.” Several chapters were devoted to their relationship, including deeply personal details about a pregnancy, miscarriage and painful breakup. In March, he released his first new album in six years, the nostalgic “Everything I Thought It Was,” a return to his familiar future funk sound.
Timberlake has two shows scheduled in Chicago on Friday and Saturday, followed by performances at New York’s Madison Square Garden on June 25 and 26.
Sag Harbor, a one-time whaling village described in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick,” is nestled among the Hamptons about 100 miles east of New York City. The Hamptons have long been a hotspot for the rich and famous, and many stars and other prominent people have had run-ins with the law there.
Located along the bay, Sag Harbor has over the years earned a more down-to-earth, “un-Hamptons” reputation than its seaside neighbors—a place where people gather not at the country club but at a corner bar called the Corner Bar. There’s still a five-and-ten dime store, and a mainstay of the social scene is the quaint, cozy mid-19th-century American Hotel.
The village has long been home to a number of prominent homeowners and residents, including singer-songwriter Billy Joel, former CNN host Don Lemon, Nobel Prize-winning novelist John Steinbeck, feminist author Betty Friedan and Pulitzer Prize winners Colson Whitehead and Lanford Wilson. The setting for Whitehead’s novel “Sag Harbor,” particularly the beachfront neighborhood, where generations of black families have spent their summer vacations.
In recent decades, Sag Harbor has become a destination for celebrities, ambitious people, and even cruise ships. Manhattan-like restaurants and expensive boutiques have multiplied. Homes fetch prices in the seven or eight figures, and the changing nature of the village has led some older residents to complain about traffic, congestion, and changing character.
Associated Press journalists Michael Balsamo, Karen Matthews and Julie Walker in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
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