A bartender at the hotel that served Justin Timberlake his now-famous martini before his DWI arrest last week has broken their silence, Daily Mail reports.
Justin Timberlake, 43, was pulled over after he ran a stop sign and veered out of his lane while behind the wheel of his 2025 BMW X7 around 12:30 a.m. of June 18 in Sag Harbor after a night out with friends. He has been staying at the The American Hotel.
A bartender at the hotel confirmed to People that the singer only consumed one drink before the arrest.
Another employee told the publication: ‘If he was drinking more, it wasn’t here.’
This comes after new details surfaced about Justin Timberlake’s arrest Tuesday in New York’s Hamptons, including a warning the pop star might have ignored.
Reports alleged the singer was warned not to drive by the same police officer who wound up arresting him and that police might have been tipped off to the singer getting behind the wheel.
A source told Page Six on Saturday that Justin Timberlake ‘was stopped and advised not to drive’ in his condition by Sag Harbor police officer Michael Arkinson, 23.
‘The officer didn’t recognize him; he’s a young guy,’ the source said. ‘And he still gave Justin a break, because he didn’t pose an immediate danger.’
The police officer believed that ‘that was the end of it’ and that Timberlake ‘would get a ride home’ before seeing Timberlake again behind the wheel ‘several minutes later,’ a source told the outlet.
The source added of Justin Timberlake: ‘What a dumba**: I am thinking he could afford a driver. How’s that for entitlement?’
Justin Timberlake, who has been on tour since April, was arrested when the officer stopped him and determined he was intoxicated, according to a court document reviewed by the AP.
Another Page Six report published Sunday indicated that police were flagged that the singer, who rose to fame as the lead member of 90s boyband NSYNC before launching a successful solo career in the noughties, was going to drive after seeing him consuming alcohol at the American Hotel.
The paper quoted a source described as a ‘well-connected Southampton restaurateur,’ who said that a person at the hotel contacted authorities after seeing Timberlake drinking.
The reporting party ‘said Justin was having a lot of drinks, and they told the cop to watch him if he is going to drive,’ the restaurateur told Page Six.
They told the outlet they believe Timberlake had been ‘mistreated’ and was ‘definitely treated unfairly’ in the unfolding series of events that led to him being taken into custody.
Dailymail.com has reached out to reps for Timberlake for comment on both items.
Timberlake has always been ‘a gentleman’ while out in the Hamptons, the restaurateur said, citing his kindness to fans.
People always recognize him, and they ask him for a picture, and he always says yes,’ the restaurateur said. ‘He has the hat pulled down and the sunglasses, so it’s hard to recognize him, but some people do.’
The restaurateur told the outlet that Timberlake is far friendlier than fellow A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio in the way he interacts with people outside of his circle.
‘Leo does not like to be recognized, and he will even curse. He does not take pictures, especially if he is with a bunch of models,’ the restaurateur said.
Timberlake is slated to play back-to-back nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City this week.
Timberlake, who has been on tour since April, was driving a 2025 BMW in Sag Harbor around 12:30 a.m. when the officer stopped him and determined he was intoxicated, according to a court document reviewed by the AP.
‘His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,’ the court papers said.
Sobriety tests include being asked to walk heel-to-toe in a straight line and turn and retrace the steps or stand on one leg.
Timberlake told the officer he had ‘one martini and was following some friends home’.
After being arrested and taken to a police station in nearby East Hampton, he refused a breath test.
Court papers listed his occupation as ‘professional’ and said he’s ‘self-employed’.
Timberlake was released from the Hamptons police station in handcuffs and was without bond later on Tuesday morning after being arraigned in Sag Harbor.
The hitmaker appeared shell-shocked and looked straight ahead as he was led out by officers.
After a brief arraignment where he was banned from driving for a year in New York, he was released without bail, emerging from court wearing a baseball cap.
Timberlake was arraigned on one count of DWI, as well as running a stop sign and failing to stay in his lane. He is next in court on July 26.
Timberlake had been drinking with friends at The American Hotel bar in the Hamptons town.
One witness claimed to The New York Post the singer had been ‘wasted’ before his DWI bust and was even seen drinking someone else’s drink from another table.
The unknown person told the outlet: ‘He was wasted. At one point, just before closing, somebody got up to go to the bathroom and left his drink on the table.
‘When [the man] came back, [Timberlake] was drinking his drink. The guy goes, “Justin, that’s my drink!.”‘
After reports emerged Timberlake had told officers at the scene he had ‘just one martini’ before ‘following his friends home,’ it opened the floodgates for dozens of memes to be created.
Fans made jokes about the size of the martini glass and his famous dance moves came back to haunt him after he failed the field sobriety test.
One wrote: ‘Why does Justin Timberlake look so hungover if he only had ONE martini? The martini…,’ alongside a gif of a giant martini glass being carried over to a table.
Others uploaded memes of bartenders generously pouring alcohol into a cocktail glass.
They wrote alongside it: ‘The bartender that made Justin Timberlake’s one martini’ and ‘Actual footage of the bartender, making Justin Timberlake’s one martini.’
Another fan compared him to Eddie Redmayne’s Cabaret performance at the Tony Awards and wrote: ‘Justin Timberlake claiming he had one martini.’
Timberlake’s wife Jessica Biel meanwhile, was spotted out in public on Tuesday for the first time after her husband’s arrest.
The actress, 42, was pictured as she filmed scenes for her upcoming Amazon series The Better Sister in New York City.
Biel looked tense and muted while standing around on set between takes.
She stars in the series with Elizabeth Banks, and the series is based on the 2019 novel by Alafair Burke.
They play two sisters who are brought together by tragedy after one of their husbands is murdered.
The set wasn’t far from Sag Harbor, the village in the Hamptons.
Sag Harbor, a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick, is nestled amid the Hamptons, around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.
The Hamptons have long been a hot spot for the rich and famous, and various stars and otherwise prominent people have had brushes with the law there.
The former *NSYNC member had broken his silence at his Friday concert in Chicago.
‘It’s been a tough week. I know I’m hard to love sometimes, but you keep loving me right back,’ he told the Chicago crowd during the concert.
Justin’s next concert is set for June 25 at Madison Square Garden, where he will entertain audiences for two consecutive nights.