Britney Spears Wasn't Madonna's First Choice To Kiss At The MTV VMAs

It may just be the most talked about kiss in history. And certainly one of the most talked about pop culture moments in history, for that matter. You know what we're talking about, those infamous lip locks between Madonna and Britney Spears and Madonna and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. It was the moment seen around the world as Spears and Aguilera donned skimpy wedding dressed to perform "Like A Virgin" and "Hollywood" with their fellow pop legend and Missy Elliott before taking it in turns to share a smooch at the end. The moment was so big that MTV gave it the honor of being the number one opening moment in MTV Video Music Awards history in 2008. Quite the accomplishment!

"We never actually, like, really did it in rehearsal," Spears said of the kiss in a 2003 interview, admitting it was all Madonna's idea to do such a big PDA on stage and she only suggested the idea to her backstage before they went out. "I was like, 'okay,' and then we did it. So, it was cool," she added. As for what Madonna had to say about the moment? "Nice, nice moment. Good kisser," she laughed to ABC News.

But it turns out Madonna initially had other ideas for who she wanted to pucker up with.

Jennifer Lopez has entered the chat. It turns out that the "Marry Me" actor was actually Madonna's first choice for the Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera incident that became one of the first to go totally viral. MTV Music Group President Van Toffler made the confession to Entertainment Weekly in 2012, confessing, "It was a long road to get to that Britney and Christina kiss, because they weren't necessarily the first couple of people who were on the hit list. This may be the first time it's revealed, but originally JLo was in the mix. That didn't happen." He didn't confirm exactly why Lopez never made a public lip lock with the "Ray of Light" singer, but admitted Spears and Aguilera weren't exactly the easiest gets either because of their history. "It was not easy to get them together on the stage," he said. "Both Britney and Christina obviously respected Madonna, so only she could pull that off."

As for what Aguilera made of it all? She wasn't too happy with how everything went down. Instead of showing Madonna kissing Aguilera, the camera famously cut to Spears' ex, Justin Timberlake, in the audience. "It was weird. They cut away to get Justin's reaction. It was a cheap shot," she told Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show in 2018. "I saw the newspaper the next day and I was like, 'Oh, well, I guess I got left out of that one.'"

It seems like Britney Spears wasn't too bothered about not being the first choice for Madonna's notorious on-screen kissing session. In fact, she was so happy with the way things went when she puckered up for round two. In June, almost 20 years after the iconic moment first took place, Spears and Madonna recreated the moment at the former's wedding with Sam Asghari, per People. One snap from the event showed the duo going lip to lip again as Madonna rocked a multi-colored tie die dress and Spears wowed in a red fringed ensemble.

It seems the star doesn't have any hard feelings towards Jennifer Lopez, either. In August, Spears shared a throwback photo of herself and the "Let's Get Loud" singer on Instagram, captioning the since removed upload, per E! News, "As Jennifer Lopez once said 'You look right down that camera and tell every little girl in the world to get loud and never ever back down to giving light to injustice'. I'm here to share that freedom is a state of mind!" Lopez then shared the post to her Instagram Stories and added, "Stay strong."