Inside Jamie Lynn Spears' Impressively Normal Private World
Originally appeared on E! Online
Class is in session for the children of this Pacific Coast Academy alum.
Last month, Jamie Lynn Spears watched her daughter Maddie, 16, enter “11th grade somehow, already” and her youngest Ivey, 6, start first grade. And for the actress, supporting her kids is just parenting 101.
So when it was time for Maddie to celebrate homecoming, Jamie Lynn, 33, made it clear she was ready to “hoco like a mofo” and capture all the big moments—including the teen making the high school’s court and heading to the dance in a pink dress.
But it was almost two decades ago that the mom of two was heading to Pepperdine University to film Zoey 101, which premiered on Nickelodeon in January 2005 and went on to become an instant hit.
Jamie Lynn was 13, playing a well-heeled kid sent to an ocean-view boarding school at the newly co-ed "Pacific Coast Academy." And with that, there were two Spears sisters lighting up Hollywood—albeit one of them not old enough to drive, let alone accompany her big sis to clubs with the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
"I love my little sister and I am overprotective with her, and I don't mind saying that," Britney Spears told Real Access after Jamie Lynn had made her big-screen debut playing a younger version of the pop star's character in 2002's Crossroads and became a featured performer on All That.
"My sister is a handful," she added. "We are so different. It's so funny—actually, she would be a lot better in this business than I am. Like her personality, she is Miss Diva. She is so full of herself, it's so cute."
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A little childhood precocity is, of course, not the same as being difficult or demanding, and the youngest daughter of Jamie Spears and Lynne Spears just so happened to have a firm head on her shoulders at an early age.
"She had to be the center of attention," the father of three—who is also dad to son Bryan Spears—said in the 2016 TLC special Jamie Lynn Spears: When the Lights Go Out. "Britney was like her second mother. She agitated everybody to death...She was bad. But it was because she had a mind of her own!"
Recalling how Jamie Lynn's manager had called her about a small part in a movie, Britney said, "And she was like, 'you know, I don't know if I'm ready for this...I don't know if I'm ready for people always asking me for my autograph—I'm just not ready for all this fame thing.'"
So Jamie Lynn was observant, too, apparently already realizing how fame had affected Britney's life. "She's kinda grown up with it," the Grammy winner acknowledged. "She's surrounded by the whole business since she's been a really young girl. If anything I'm going to be trying to get advice from her," Britney added, laughing.
Indeed, Jamie Lynn was only a baby, literally, when her big sister joined The All New Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 11.
"'Oh, Britney's little sister,'" Jamie Lynn said, referring to how people tended to think of her. "I'm trying to change it to Jamie Lynn Spears, you know. So that's why I try to be taken as a serious actress before I ever move on to doing singing."
And after just a couple of years, she landed her own sitcom.
Zoey 101 was one of Nickelodeon's most expensive productions and appeared to be well worth it. It was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program in 2005 and Jamie Lynn won Favorite Television Actress at the 2006 Kids' Choice Awards. The cast also took home a Young Artist Award two years' running for Best Young Ensemble Performance.
Now everyone wanted to see, like Britney, what Jamie Lynn was wearing, who her friends were and what sort of activities she was into in real life. She was also still technically attending school back home in Kentwood, La., so she had to juggle homework along with learning her lines and making appearances all over the world.
It was in Louisiana that Jamie Lynn started dating Casey Aldridge, Maddie's father. With so much Britney-related Spears news already swirling in 2007, it was indeed a major shock when then 16-year-old Jamie Lynn revealed she was pregnant that December.
It was in Louisiana that Jamie Lynn started dating Casey Aldridge, Maddie's father. With so much Britney-related Spears news already swirling in 2007, it was indeed a major shock when then 16-year-old Jamie Lynn revealed she was pregnant that December.
"I was riding around in my mom's little convertible and I had not been feeling well," she recalled to E! News in a 2013 interview. "I thought it was just stress with work and all kinds of different things. My friend was like, 'Why don't you just take a test?' I was like, 'Okay, I will.' We were filling up with gas, so I went in the gas station and took the test and it was positive.
"So that is the glamorous way that I found out I was going to have my little nugget!"
In fact, Jamie Lynn was so shocked that she didn't tell her parents right away.
"Only one of my friends knew because I needed to work out what I would do for myself before I let anyone's opinion affect my decision," she told OK! in 2007, her first interview about the surprising turn her life had taken. "Then I told my parents and my friends. I was scared, but I had to do what was right for me."
As far as being pregnant at 16 went, "I definitely don't think it's something you should do; it's better to wait," she added. "But I can't be judgmental because it's a position I put myself in."
Zoey 101's fourth season was already shot and it unfolded starting in January 2008, with the series finale airing that May.
"I was young, famous, unmarried, and pregnant—talk about a media s--tstorm," she wrote in her 2022 memoir Things I Should Have Said, noting others wanted her to have an abortion or place the baby for adoption. "I was basically throwing a grenade onto my well-constructed career path."
Still, she insisted the show didn't wrap because she was expecting a baby—writing in a 2019 Instagram post, "#itdidNOTendbecauseofpregnancy#contractwasfinished."
"I went home to finish high school," she added, "and was going to pursue movies."
Jamie Lynn earned her GED in February 2008 (she actually ended up getting her diploma ahead of schedule). Maddie was then born on June 19, 2008, in McComb, Miss., just like her mom and Auntie Britney.
"That was special, but it was also strange because she's always been the baby, and now the baby was having a baby," Britney, by then under a since-terminated conservatorship, told OK! that August. "It was mind-boggling. I was shocked a little bit. But it was really cool, and she was happy. When she got to the hospital, we all thought it was going to be an all-day thing, and instead, the baby just sort of popped out. OK, we're happy now!"
It was not long after that Teen Mom premiered in 2009. And as Jamie Lynn noted to Glamour in 2012 her first thought was, "Oh my God, I cannot wait to see this show because there's someone else out there. I mean, I feel for those girls. I've been that girl. It does show that motherhood is hard. There were so many times—especially when Maddie would get sick—when I would cry to myself and think, I really don't know what to do. It takes bravery to be a young mom, and it does take bravery to let the world watch."
And like most of the Teen Mom stars, she was no longer in a relationship with her child's father.
"Casey was my first love. Since the day I saw him, I just wanted to marry him and be with him forever and ever," Jamie Lynn also told Glamour in what was her first time speaking in detail about her post-Nickelodeon life since becoming a mom. "I believe in safety and birth control as prevention. But like many young girls...I was really scared to go to the doctor. And I was on a Nickelodeon show, and it [felt] especially embarrassing to ask someone to put me on birth control."
She and Casey got engaged but broke up in 2009, after which Jamie Lynn, deciding she was ready to pursue the music career she'd always planned on pursuing one day, temporarily moved to Nashville with Maddie. The young parents reconciled briefly but split up for good in 2010.
"The engagement proved our legitimacy to the world/I was doing the right thing for my baby," she wrote in Things I Should Have Said, per Entertainment Tonight. "This entire scenario was damage control for my sinking public reputation... In reality, my fiancé was gone more than he was home and his whereabouts remained unknown to me most of the time."
And like most of the Teen Mom stars, she was no longer in a relationship with her child's father.
"Casey was my first love. Since the day I saw him, I just wanted to marry him and be with him forever and ever," Jamie Lynn also told Glamour in what was her first time speaking in detail about her post-Nickelodeon life since becoming a mom. "I believe in safety and birth control as prevention. But like many young girls...I was really scared to go to the doctor. And I was on a Nickelodeon show, and it [felt] especially embarrassing to ask someone to put me on birth control."
She and Casey got engaged but broke up in 2009, after which Jamie Lynn, deciding she was ready to pursue the music career she'd always planned on pursuing one day, temporarily moved to Nashville with Maddie. The young parents reconciled briefly but split up for good in 2010.
"The engagement proved our legitimacy to the world/I was doing the right thing for my baby," she wrote in Things I Should Have Said, per Entertainment Tonight. "This entire scenario was damage control for my sinking public reputation... In reality, my fiancé was gone more than he was home and his whereabouts remained unknown to me most of the time."
Mr. Right had come along in the form of business owner James Watson, who proposed in March 2013 after a couple of years together (despite her description of casual dating in 2012, Watson had been in the picture since 2010). He and Jamie Lynn got married in New Orleans on May 14, 2014, two weeks before her first EP, The Journey, dropped.
The bride wore Liancarlo, and Maddie was her flower girl. Britney's sons Sean Preston Federline and Jayden James Federline, whom she welcomed with ex-husband Kevin Federline, were the ringbearers.
After the honeymoon, the plan was always to continue to focus on music. Jamie Lynn's song "Sleepover" came out in 2016 and Britney and Bryan were on hand to introduce her when she performed at the Grand Ole Opry for the first time that March. Also that year, she opened her doors to TLC for Jamie Lynn Spears: When the Lights Go Out, a docu-special chronicling her life from child stardom to teen pregnancy to her big night at the Opry.
"I'm not just a child star, and I'm not just someone's sister," she reflected, "and I'm not just a teen mom."
And then life packed another wallop for Jamie Lynn's family.
In 2017, Maddie was critically injured in an ATV accident.
She was operating the off-road vehicle herself, while her grandpa Jamie and stepdad James watched her ride, when she flipped over and landed in a pond after swerving to avoid a drainage ditch. Family members jumped in to get her within seconds but it wasn't until first responders arrived a few moments later that they were able to get her out of her seatbelt.
"When we were finally able to get her out of the water and I saw her and then the first responders took her from me, we thought she was gone," Jamie Lynn recalled on a 2020 episode of Maria Menounos Better Together podcast. "We thought we'd lost our daughter."
Two days later, Maddie was awake and talking after a period in which the family wasn't sure what sort of damage had been done. A few weeks later, she was back to her normal routine.
"God gave me the blessing of giving me my daughter back," Jamie Lynn continued. "I lost her and I got her back."
In 2017, Maddie was critically injured in an ATV accident.
She was operating the off-road vehicle herself, while her grandpa Jamie and stepdad James watched her ride, when she flipped over and landed in a pond after swerving to avoid a drainage ditch. Family members jumped in to get her within seconds but it wasn't until first responders arrived a few moments later that they were able to get her out of her seatbelt.
"When we were finally able to get her out of the water and I saw her and then the first responders took her from me, we thought she was gone," Jamie Lynn recalled on a 2020 episode of Maria Menounos Better Together podcast. "We thought we'd lost our daughter."
Two days later, Maddie was awake and talking after a period in which the family wasn't sure what sort of damage had been done. A few weeks later, she was back to her normal routine.
"God gave me the blessing of giving me my daughter back," Jamie Lynn continued. "I lost her and I got her back."
A couple months later, Jamie Lynn was back onstage, performing at the Radio Disney Music Awards, where Britney was being honored. That June she basked in the sun—and the applause—at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville (Though Jamie Lynn has insisted she "never tried" becoming a pop star as "there was no competing with the GOAT.")
Then, life literally happened, and daughter Ivey was born on April 11, 2018.
"Me and my sister are 10 years apart, and Maddie and Ivey are 10 years apart, so I'm hoping they have the same kind of relationship where it was like a second mom, almost," Jamie Lynn told People that May. "It's gonna be a special relationship. Sisters are something special—especially when there's that age gap there."
Nowadays, Jamie Lynn is busy doing extremely normal mom things such as packing school lunches, having taco nights, dressing her kids in coordinating outfits and sharing parenting tales on social media. Her sporty family also roots for the New Orleans Saints and local LSU teams, and Jamie Lynn takes Ivey along to watch Maddie's softball games.
And Jamie Lynn told The Dopple in 2019 that the age gap has indeed been helpful to her as a mom so far.
"I would think going from one to two children, when they are both under 5 would be a much harder transition," she said. "Maddie is older, so she is able to really be helpful and understanding in some situations that can be tough with a new baby. Don't get me wrong, we have had our tough moments though—just like everyone else!"
A couple months later, Jamie Lynn was back onstage, performing at the Radio Disney Music Awards, where Britney was being honored. That June she basked in the sun—and the applause—at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville (Though Jamie Lynn has insisted she "never tried" becoming a pop star as "there was no competing with the GOAT.")
Then, life literally happened, and daughter Ivey was born on April 11, 2018.
"Me and my sister are 10 years apart, and Maddie and Ivey are 10 years apart, so I'm hoping they have the same kind of relationship where it was like a second mom, almost," Jamie Lynn told People that May. "It's gonna be a special relationship. Sisters are something special—especially when there's that age gap there."
As for Jamie Lynn's own sisterly bond, fans have watched her and Britney's ups and downs play out in the public eye.
While Britney expressed her love for Jamie Lynn in a December 2022 tribute and said in June 2023 that she visited her on the set of Zoey 102—the 2023 rom-com meant as a follow-up to the OG series—also expressed hurt over the 13-year conservatorship and her younger sibling's book Things I Should Have Said.
"As I was fighting the conservatorship and receiving a lot of press attention, she was writing a book capitalizing on it," the "Piece of Me" artist wrote in her own book The Woman in Me, released in October 2023. "She rushed out salacious stories about me, many of them hurtful and outrageous. I was really let down."
However, Britney has expressed her desire to get to a better place with Jamie Lynn.
"She will always be my sister, and I love her and her beautiful family," she added. "I'm working to feel more compassion than anger toward her and toward everyone who I feel has wronged me. It's not easy."
For her part, Jamie Lynn—who told Juju Chang in 2022 she "didn't understand what was happening" when the conservatorship was put into place in 2008 and that she "took no steps to be a part of that"—has expressed confusion over how they got to this point.
"I've only ever loved and supported her and done what's right by her, and she knows that," she added in the ABC News interview. "So I don't know why we're in this position right now."
As far as work goes, Jamie has made several television appearances over the years. In addition to Special Forces and Zoey 102, the 33-year-old has acted in the show Sweet Magnolias and competed on both Dancing With the Stars and I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.
And while she's teased new music in the past, her most recent release was her updated version of the Zoey 101 theme song "Follow Me," which she dropped in 2020.
"So many of you have been asking when you will get some new music & new content from me," she tweeted in 2019. "I promise I have been working on it but life happens & I had [to] take time to be there for my family this year."
Still, Jamie Lynn expressed her hope at the time to get back to acting.
"I'm open to anything that allows me to be creative and connect with my fans," she told The Dopple that year before the Zoey 102 announcement, "especially the ones who have been with me since the Zoey days."
(This story was originally published in 2019 and has been updated).
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