Britney Spears Angers Selena Gomez Fans After She Teases New Song Title 'Hate You to Like Me': 'So Passive Aggressive'
Did she do it again? Britney Spears appeared to throw shade at Selena Gomez for a second time after she teased the title of a potential new song called "Hate You to Like Me."
The Princess of Pop, 41, took to Instagram on Sunday, October 29, with the announcement that she's been working on a new track, and she seemed to know she'd leave people bothered by the choice of words she picked for the title.
"I wrote a new song!!! Hate you to like me!!!" Spears captioned a throwback photo of herself from her 2001 "Overprotected" music video before drawing attention to the song title's similarity to Gomez's 2020 hit tune "Lose You to Love Me."
"No beef with anyone … just being a narcissist in a claimed, self-entitled way!!!" she snubbed, noting, "it’s to accumulate interest by giving ego with my eyes closed because I hear important people do that these days 🎯😉."
Gomez's large fan base quickly grew angry by Spears' post and flocked to X (formerly named Twitter) to express their disapproval.
"Britney Spears is so passive aggressive with Selena Gomez 'cause she sees glimpses of herself in her 😭," one supporter of the "Single Soon" singer suggested, claiming, "she became extremely mad and weird toward her after her newlywed husband hit on Selena!?!?!?"
"At the wedding?!?!?!" they continued, referencing Gomez's attendance at Spears and her estranged husband Sam Asghari's June 2022 wedding ceremony — where social media users have speculated that the aspiring actor, 29, tried to flirt with the Only Murders in the Building actress, 31, during his own union to the "Toxic" vocalist.
"I promise Selena didn't want Sam. Britney is [very] weird for that," the fan concluded, while a second person wrote, "Britney Spears can’t enjoy her memoir and all the praise she’s getting… she just had to find a way to insult Selena somehow."
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Just one month after her wedding last year, Spears admitted seeing Gomez was a "surprise" as she had "no idea" the Wizards of Waverly Place alum was invited.
"I had no idea!!! I was SO HAPPY!!!" the "Circus" hitmaker said at the time.
"She told me 'I just want you to be happy' three times," Spears revealed of the kind words Gomez told her. "It was so cool she was able to get to me and share her thoughts."
Despite possible tension stemming from her wedding day, Spears — who split from Asghari in August — was previously accused of shading Gomez's “Ice Cream” music video with BLACKPINK, as well as her 2016 speech telling young girls she "didn’t want to see [their] bodies" on Instagram.
"They say 'This is NOT something I would do' yet those women are the very ones who get 4 million dollar budget videos made about sucking and licking on homemade ice cream!!!!" Spears captioned a post roughly one year ago. "So the next time I see someone with a big budget video sucking on lollipops yet giving righteous speeches shaming other women for exposing their bodies, I would like to tell those people don’t be a hypocrite as you suck on your lollipop having HUGE budget dreams…"
After facing backlash, Spears insisted the post "had nothing to do with anyone specific at all."