As we all know, Justin Timberlake couldn’t help but remind us that he got drunk and got handsy with his costar Alisha Wainwright. The incident happened in New Orleans, at a bar in the French Quarter, and JT and Alisha were holding hands and at one point, she had her hand on his thigh, and they looked very flirty and touchy. He also looked visibly drunk. We know all of this because there were photos and a video. It’s not idle gossip. It’s evidential gossip. Anyway, that happened the weekend before Thanksgiving. We got through a whole-ass holiday and completely forgot about it before Justin reminded us by posting his “apology” on Instagram Tuesday evening. So what was behind the apology? Why publicly apologize to his wife for this, as opposed to, you know, working sh-t out privately? A source spilled all to E! News:

Justin Timberlake is taking the steps to put those eyebrow-raising photos behind him. Late last month, the Grammy winner made headlines when photos emerged of him and Palmer co-star Alisha Wainwright holding hands and getting questionably touchy during an outing with the cast and crew in New Orleans. While sources told E! News “there is absolutely nothing going on between them,” Timberlake broke his silence on the situation on Wednesday with a public apology to his longtime wife, Jessica Biel, and his family.

“He feels terrible that this happened and for putting Jessica through the public scrutiny,” a source said of the star. “He knows she doesn’t deserve any of this and that he messed up.”

According to the source, Timberlake “hopes by addressing what happened and apologizing to her publicly that they can put this behind them and start to move on. Justin feels like the story isn’t dying and hopes this will be the end of it. He always tries to keep his private life private, but he knows he made a big mistake in public and now has to own up to it.”

In regard to their 7-year marriage, “Nobody is going anywhere, but it’s definitely had an effect on their marriage and her trust in him,” the source noted. “Even if nothing more happened than what was in the photos, what he did was highly inappropriate.”

Timberlake’s rep could not be reached for comment.

[From E! News]

I always love it when an outlet gets some dishy exclusive from someone deep within a celebrity’s camp and then they end the article with “so-and-so’s rep could not be reached for comment.” Just so we’re clear, Justin’s rep went to E! and asked them to print this follow-up. As for the quotes… “He knows she doesn’t deserve any of this”…? So it would have been cool for him to cheat if she did “deserve” it? Huh. “Justin feels like the story isn’t dying”…? The story was dead. It was dead before Thanksgiving even, and I truly forgot about that sh-t this week. The rest of it… I guess Jessica was legit pissed. I would have been too! And I guess she was like “motherf–ker, APOLOGIZE TO ME and let everyone know you apologized to me.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.