It is no secret that Britney Spears’s relationship with her younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, has been strained for many years — namely due to Jamie Lynn’s lack of support while Britney was forced to live under a controversial conservatorship.
In light of the Free Britney movement, which saw Britney’s 13-year conservatorship come to an end in 2021, Britney called her mom and sister out for doing “nothing” to help her while her life and finances were strictly controlled by her dad and a group of lawyers.
And Britney spoke even more candidly about Jamie Lynn in her memoir The Woman In Me, which was released to huge acclaim last week.
In her book, the star calls Jamie Lynn “a total bitch,” a “little witch,” and suggests that she was spoiled by their parents and incredibly ungrateful for all that Britney provided for her amid her success.
When Britney was 20 years old, she went back to her family home to spend time with her loved ones following her split from Justin Timberlake. Sharing her shock to see how then-11-year-old Jamie Lynn was behaving, Britney writes: “My little sister — well, when I tell you she was a total bitch, I'm not exaggerating.”
“It was clear that girl ruled the roost,” she goes on. “Meanwhile, it was like I was a ghost child. I can remember walking into the room and feeling like no one even saw me. Jamie Lynn only saw the TV."
She also says that Jamie Lynn would speak back to their mom, detailing: “I’d listen to her spew these hateful words, and I'd turn to my mother and say, 'Are you going to let this little witch talk to you like that?'"
And when Britney bought the family “a house for Jamie Lynn to grow up in,” she claims that her sister “was not exactly grateful for it.” Britney writes: “She'd later say, 'Why'd she get us a house?' — like it was some sort of imposition."
Britney later adds: “That's how we all were with Jamie Lynn: 'You see it, you like it, you want it, you got it.' As far as I could tell, her world was the Ariana Grande song '7 Rings' come to life."
Jamie Lynn was 10 years old when she made her acting debut in Britney’s movie Crossroads in 2002, where she played the younger version of Britney’s character, Lucy.
And a TV interview from this time recently resurfaced on social media, and it’s fair to say that it has not aged well.
In the clip, little Jamie Lynn shows huge ambition as she shares her hopes for the future. Interestingly, she also warns her big sister that she needs to “scoot over” to make room for her, because she’s “gonna be the star.”
“I love singing for fun because I guess it just runs in the family. I’d like to be like Britney, but maybe better,” Jamie Lynn tells the host. “But I don’t want to outshine her. I like to sing Britney’s new song, ‘I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman.’”
Spliced between more clips of Jamie Lynn singing Britney’s songs, the preteen says: “I mean, not to be braggy or anything but I guess I’ve got a pretty good voice. People tell me I have a more mature voice than normal 10 year olds.”
The video ends with Jamie Lynn saying: “My advice to Britney is to just scoot over, because I’m coming through and I’m gonna be the star pretty soon.”
Posting the interview to X, formerly known as Twitter, one person wrote: “The public thought Jamie Lynn was so cute and just being ‘sassy’ here but the truth was this is how she really was and what she really felt and it shows with how she acted while Britney was in the Cship and how she has been since Britney’s been free.”
The public thought Jamie Lynn was so cute and just being “sassy”here but the truth was this is how she really was and what she really felt and it shows with how she acted while Britney was in the Cship and how she has been since Britney’s been free#BritneySpears#TheWomanInMepic.twitter.com/xNvty6Sy6R
And it didn’t take long for the tweet to gain traction, with one person writing: “Just because your young doesn't mean you can't be jealous, and the older you get, the more your able to act on it.”
Another observed Britney’s reaction to her little sister’s comments in the clip, with the star shown graciously laughing. They tweeted: “Britney looking so genuine and flattered and all not knowing she’s being set up by the people she’s having a high regards to is so sad. I hate it when people are getting taken advantage because of their genuineness. The world is unfair and cruel.”
“why would a 10 year old say things like that? they had such a weird home,” someone else asked. One more said: “I think they envy and resent Britney because of the level of fame that she reached. They hate all the negative attention it has brought them so the loath her for it all.”
After Crossroads, Nickelodeon cast Jamie Lynn as a regular performer in their series All That, which she appeared on until 2004 — when Nickelodeon gave her in the lead role in the sitcom Zoey 101.
Britney supported her at the time, and even wrote the series theme song, “Follow Me,” for Jamie Lynn to sing. And when Jamie Lynn became embroiled in a now-infamous feud with her costar, Alexa Nikolas, Britney was quick to intervene — only to later find out that Jamie Lynn had lied about the entire situation.
Calling herself “protective” of her little sister at the time, Britney writes in her memoir: “After she complained to me about a costar of hers on her TV show, I showed up on the set to have words with the actress. What I must have looked like, hugely pregnant, yelling at a teenage (and, I would later learn, innocent) girl, 'Are you spreading rumors about my sister?'"
Britney already publicly apologized to Alexa for this incident, and apologizes again in her book.
Jamie Lynn turned her attention to music in 2013 but received a pretty lukewarm response. Her first single debuted at number 29 on Billboard’s country music chart. During Britney’s conservatorship, Jamie Lynn featured on the star’s eighth studio album, and in 2017 performed a medley of Britney’s hit songs at the Radio Disney Music Awards while Britney sat in the audience.
Britney later revealed that she was “deeply hurt” by this performance, explaining on Twitter last year: “It may sound like a silly thing to most people, but I wrote a lot of my songs and my sister was the baby. She never had to work for anything. Everything was always given to her!”
In her memoir, Britney also reflects on reaching out to Jamie Lynn for help when their dad used the conservatorship to keep her in a rehab facility against her will for months on end.
"I also texted my sister when I was in that place and asked her to get me out," she writes. "'Stop fighting it,' she texted back. 'There's nothing you can do about it, so stop fighting it.' Along with the rest of them, she kept acting like I was a threat in some way. This will sound crazy, but I'll say it again because it's the truth: I thought they were going to try to kill me."
And Britney calls Jamie Lynn out for “capitalizing” on her conservatorship by writing her own memoir, Things I Should Have Said, when Britney started to fight back. She says: “As I was fighting the conservatorship and receiving a lot of press attention, she was writing a book capitalizing on it.”
"She rushed out salacious stories about me, many of them hurtful and outrageous. I was really let down,” Britney adds. “Shouldn't sisters be able to confess their fear or vulnerability to each other without that later being used as evidence of instability?"
But despite everything, Britney has insisted that she wishes “the absolute best” for her sister. She writes: “She's spoken about the pain of growing up in my shadow. I'm working to feel more compassion than anger toward her and toward everyone who I feel has wronged me. It's not easy."
