Jamie Lynn Spears Says She ‘Felt Like an Afterthought’ Growing Up in Britney Spears’ Shadow
Jamie Lynn Spears continued the roll-out of her memoir, Things I Should Have Said, on Monday night (Jan. 17) with an appearance on Spotify’s Call her Daddy podcast in which she described to host Alex Cooper what it felt like growing up in the considerable shadow of her more-famous older sister.
“I always felt like an afterthought, I literally was, I just learned to stay out of the way,” Jamie Lynn, 30, told Cooper about the conflicted feelings she had as a first grader watching sister Britney Spears blow up into a worldwide superstar. “I was so proud of her, I was like I know how hard she worked and I admired her, and it was so cool I got to witness the coolest things watching her live out her dreams. So for me it was like stay out of the way and let this experience happen because this was the goal everyone wanted and they got it so I just need to not mess anything up for anybody.”
The interview to promote the memoir, out today, is the latest chat in which Jamie Lynn has opened up about what was going on behind-the-scenes at the Spears household. That includes talking about the book’s page one revelation that she was an “oops” baby, as well as delving into the destructive nature of her father’s struggle with alcoholism and the intense paparazzi swarms that descended on the family’s Kentwood, Louisiana home during Britney’s rocket to fame.
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As in previous chats, Jamie Lynn touches on her decision to go through with a pregnancy at 16 that her family did not approve of, as well as re-telling a story in which she claims Britney locked the two of them in a room while holding a knife.
“This was a brilliant young woman who was going through a hard time, and if she didn’t stand up for herself then somebody should have,” Jamie Lynn said in the first part of a two-part pod about the incident she describes in the book from a period when Spears was struggling with her mental health and the then-12-year-old younger sister didn’t know how to help. “I wasn’t an adult then, I couldn’t. Somebody should have said stop the f—ing presses give this girl a f—ing minute.”
The press tour for Things appears to have caused a public rift between the sisters, with Britney posting a series of peeved reactions to Jamie Lynn’s interviews and claims in the book. “It’s so tacky for a family to fight publicly like this !!! You say you love me … yet your loyalty is still with the people that hurt me most !!!” Britney wrote Jan. 15 in the latest salvo in a public spat kicked off last week when Jamie Lynn did a teary tell-all interview with Good Morning America. The second part of the Daddy podcast airs at midnight Wednesday (Jan. 19).
In another segment sure to further stir the pot, Jamie Lynn described to Cooper what it felt like to watch Britney’s famously messy 2002 break-up with Justin Timberlake, describing how shocked she was when the two pop idols split. “I think everyone thought it was forever… I was so sad first off because my sister was so sad, but that too was the first time I saw maybe I didn’t know everything about the relationship,” Jamie Lynn said.
“I truly do not know [why they broke up]… I thought how heartbreaking it must have been for my sister when [Timberlake’s] ‘Cry Me a River’ came out don’t get me wrong, like that’s a way to launch your solo career right? That’s a way to do it, but I felt really sad and my sister she wrote that song ‘Everytime’ and she’s beyond brilliant with anything creative and she picked that song out on the piano and she wrote it and it still makes me cry because I think about how heartbroken she was because that was her song and that was his song. It still breaks my heart to think about that.“
And though Jamie’s roll-out has led to some public back-and-forth, Jamie Lynn noted that Britney’s legendarily intense work ethic has been “nothing but an inspiration to me” and that she truly does not feel jealous of Brit’s success. “I got to experience watching a woman take over the f—ing world. How can I be jealous of that?” she said.
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