Jamie Lynn Spears opened up about the struggles she faced from getting pregnant at 16 — while starring on a hit TV show.
“When I was not much older than my daughter is now … I became pregnant, and yes, that was something that I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me,” Spears, 32, said during the Wednesday, July 26, episode of the “Better Tomorrow With Hannah Brown” podcast. “That doesn’t make sense for everyone else, but it made sense for me, and the whole world came down and told me I was the worst human alive for doing so, and that every young girl who ever watched my show was going to be ruined because of me and my personal decision.”
While Spears, who was starring as the titular character on Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101 at the time of her pregnancy, shared that she “didn’t want to let anyone down,” she also “had to do what was right” for her. Her decision to have a baby while working on a teen show ultimately sparked a public outcry.
“[People were] having the conversation of young girls my age were having sex. And I think people didn’t want that … Of like, this is going on, but a lot of them aren’t getting pregnant” she explained, adding, “If I would’ve had an abortion, no one would have known about it, but it wouldn’t have changed the fact that I had sex. So I think that was really the bigger conversation, like, ‘Now, young girls are going to want to have sex, or they are.’”
Spears led the show, which followed her character as she settles in at her new boarding school in Malibu, for four seasons before the network ultimately pulled the plug in 2008. The actress gave birth to her daughter, Maddie, whom she shares with ex Casey Aldridge, later that year. (Spears also shares daughter Ivey, 5, with husband Jamie Watson, whom she married in 2014.)
While Spears told Nylon magazine in October 2020 that she “didn’t become pregnant until probably six months” after Zoey 101…
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