It is unknown exactly when Timberlake and Biel met, but according to Us Weekly, the two crossed paths sometime in early 2007, shortly after Timberlake broke up with Cameron Diaz. After linking up at a party, Timberlake followed up with a mutual friend who helped to set them up.
"I did it the old fashioned way — by telephone," he explained in a 2012 press conference. "That's something I learned from both my stepdad and my grandfather — that there is a thing called chivalry and it doesn't have to die with the birth of the internet. The way I see it, if you're asking a girl out on a date, it's only right to do it in a way that she can hear your voice. 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."