American actor Justin Timberlake had publicly apologized to his wife Jessica Biel after pictures surfaced of him holding hands with Alisha Wainwright recently. The Grammy Award-winning musician attributed the "strong lapse in judgment" to a night of heavy drinking, during an outing with friends in New Orleans.
The 38-year-old actor took to Instagram and released a statement saying that he regretted his behavior and strongly stressed that nothing happened between him and his Palmer co-star. He wrote: "I stay away from gossip as much as I can, but for my family, I feel it is important to address recent rumors that are hurting the people I love."
He continued: "A few weeks ago I displayed a strong lapse in judgment — but let me be clear — nothing happened between me and my costar. I drank way too much that night and I regret my behavior. I should have known better."
According to a report in E! News, the Cry Me a River hitmaker decided to publicly address the incident as he wanted to save Biel from the embarrassment. A source said: "He feels terrible that this happened and for putting Jessica through the public scrutiny. He knows she doesn't deserve any of this and that he messed up."
The insider added that the father-of-one "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."
Timberlake and Biel tied the knot in a romantic ceremony in Italy in 2012, after five years of dating. The couple share a four-year-old son, Silas.
Despite the crisis, the 37-year-old actress is determined to stay close to Timberlake.
"Nobody is going anywhere, but it's definitely had an effect on their marriage and her trust in him. Even if nothing more happened than what was in the photos, what he did was highly inappropriate," the source shared.
