Justin Timberlake says he still roots for Spears

Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears

Justin Timberlake and now-girlfriend Cameron Diaz (AP)

Though Justin Timberlake says he no longer speaks to ex-girlfriend Britney Spears, he's still rooting for her.

"I wish her well, and I want to see her win," Timberlake tells GQ magazine in its August issue, on newsstands July 25.

"I don't think you can ever count somebody like her out," he says of Spears, who broke down in tears during a recent interview with NBC's Matt Lauer. "Because she may appear one way, but she's very clever."

Timberlake, 25, fell for Spears, now 24 and pregnant with her second child with husband Kevin Federline, when they were preteens in "The Mickey Mouse Club."

"I was in love with her from the start," he tells the magazine. "I was infatuated with her from the moment I saw her."

After a public romance, the couple broke up in 2002.