By Justin Timberlake just released a brand-new album, Man of the Woods, and is about to perform the halftime show at the Super Bowl — and his wife, actress Jessica Biel, will be right there cheering him on. On Wednesday, which was JT's birthday, she posted an incredibly sweet photo to celebrate:
"Here's to a spectacular year ahead. I'm so proud of all you've accomplished and all that is ahead for you. plus you're a super hot dad," she wrote on Instagram. "I'm here, right by your side, OG fan girl #1. Happy birthday, my beloved. Now go crush it this weekend at SB LII."
The two stars have always had each other's backs throughout their 11-year relationship. Here's how they have stuck together through it all.
Timberlake and Biel met at the 2007 Golden Globes, Biel's 7th Heaven costar Beverley Mitchell told Access Hollywood Live. "I was there like the moment the love connection happened," Mitchell said in the interview. "I was like, 'OK, this is happening.' It was very, very sweet. They were definitely flirting. They were really cute."
Justin said he asked a mutual friend if he could call her and ask her out, and he got the OK to give it a shot. "I did it the old fashioned way — by telephone," he said at a 2012 press conference, according to Us Weekly. "I had to be pretty persistent in order to get her to say yes. But I have a fair amount of tenacity and if I want something I stick to it. And in the end she agreed."
The early days of their relationship were marked by distance due to their careers. "We didn't kiss for a very long time because he was on tour, and we were talking on the phone, like normal pre-teens do," Jessica said on The Late Late Show With James Corden. "We were just chatting on the phone for hours. So, we never really kissed for a very long time." Even still, she said she knew early on he was the one, and said she still keeps an email she sent to her producing partner that said "I will marry this man."
But it wasn't all rosy. In 2011, the two broke up for three months, according to Us Weekly. JT opened up to Vanity Fair at the time, and mentioned that she still meant a lot to him, despite the tabloids trying to interpret false things about their breakup. "She is the single-handedly most significant person in my life. In my 30 years, she is the most special person, OK?” he told the magazine. “ I don’t want to say much more, because I have to protect things that are dear to me — for instance, her. I would rather not talk about her, because it's hurtful for me. It's unfortunate that even though you make the effort to say something, which I tried on for size, people do what they want to do."
The two gave their romance another try a few months after the breakup, Us Weekly reports, and it stuck that time. Justin proposed in 2011, in the mountains of Jackson, Wyoming, according to the magazine, and E! News reported they celebrated with family and friends in Montana.
They were married on October 19, 2012, in Puglia, Italy in front of around 100 guests, according to Brides. Jessica broke with tradition and wore a pink Giambatista Valli wedding dress, walking down the aisle to a song Justin wrote. Guests included celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Andy Samberg, and Timbaland.
Since then, the husband and wife have shared sweet tributes to one another in public while also keeping the details of their private life, well, private. On their fifth wedding anniversary, JT shared the song he wrote for her, which was their first dance. "You have taught me so much about what a true love means," he wrote on Facebook.
In 2015, after months of speculation, they finally confirmed they were expecting their first child. "This year, I'm getting the GREATEST GIFT EVER," Justin wrote on Instagram on his birthday, posing next to his wife's pregnant belly.
They welcomed their son, Silas Randall, that April according to People. Silas was the middle name of Justin's grandfather, and Randall is his own middle name.
Jessica said she wasn't always sure she wanted kids until she met Justin. "Honestly, I didn't grow up dreaming about having kids and having a family. I was so focused on my career and so focused on my selfish existence, haha, but I think meeting my husband inspired me," she wrote on Reddit. "One day I just woke up and knew it's what I wanted to do and it's been the hardest, greatest thing ever and I wouldn't give it up for the world."
But now she says that a key to keeping a marriage strong is inspiring one another to be better. "I hope I'm inspiring to him," she told Entertainment Tonight. "I think having a partner who is doing something that you're excited about — like for me, his music and everything that he does — it's just amazing to see somebody doing what they love, and I think it can be as simple as that."
It seems clear that Jessica definitely serves as an inspiration for Justin. On February 2, he released the music video for the title track on his new album, which features his wife.
“Every once in a while, I can catch a glimpse of her when she doesn’t see me looking," he told Ellen DeGeneres. "I have this moment where I’m like, ‘If you never make a good decision — if you only make bad decisions – for the rest of your life, you made one really good decision.'"
