Jamie Lynn Spears’ Book Details Strained Relationship With Britney Spears, Mental Health Struggles and More

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Jamie Lynn Spears' Book Details Strained Relationship With Britney Spears, Mental Health Struggles and More

Jamie Lynn Spears' book made headlines before its release for its passages about Britney Spears, but her older sister isn't the only topic of conversation in the memoir. The former Nickelodeon star, 30, detailed her relationship with her father, Jamie Spears, and her mother, Lynne Spears, in Things I Should Have Said, released on Tuesday, January 18. Months before the book's debut, a leaked passage revealed what happened after the Sweet Magnolias star told her parents that she was pregnant at age 16. "My daddy and I stopped speaking and the tension was terrible," the Zoey 101 alum wrote of her father, 69, noting that he encouraged her to put the baby up for adoption. "One person after another — and there were many — came to my room trying to convince me that having a baby at this point in my life was a terrible idea." Jamie Lynn, who was then in a relationship with now ex-fiancé Casey Aldridge, welcomed daughter Maddie, now 13, in June 2008. She also shares daughter Ivey, 3, with husband Jamie Watson, whom she wed in 2014. [jwplayer f7NE6M7y-zhNYySv2] Though the All That alum recalls her management team putting pressure on her to end her pregnancy, she also revealed that she hid the news from Britney, 40. When Jamie Lynn discovered she was expecting in 2007, her sister was in the midst of her messy split from ex-husband Kevin Federline. "My team believed everyone outside of the inner circle was a potential threat," the "How Could I Want More" songstress claimed in the book. "They went so far as hiding my pregnancy from my sister, claiming, 'It’s too risky to tell Britney about the baby.' I needed her more than ever, and she wasn’t able to help me in my most vulnerable time." According to Jamie Lynn, the "Toxic" singer didn't find out her little sister was pregnant until the news was announced in a magazine. "To this day, the hurt of not being able to tell my sister myself lingers," the "Sleepover" musician wrote. Britney, for her part, hasn't responded well to some of Jamie Lynn's promotion for the book. During a Wednesday, January 12, interview with Nightline, the Just Jordan alum recalled an alleged incident when the Grammy winner took a kitchen knife to a bedroom and locked both herself and her sister in the room. Jamie Lynn claimed her sister put the knife on the bedside table. Britney denied the incident ever happened. “Jamie Lynn … congrats babe! You’ve stooped to a whole new level of LOW,” the former X Factor judge tweeted on Friday, January 14. “I’ve never been around you ever with a knife or would I ever even think to do such!!!” Keep scrolling for more revelations from Jamie Lynn's book: [podcast_block]

Credit: Shutterstock (2)

Jamie Lynn Spears' Book Details Strained Relationship With Britney Spears, Mental Health Struggles and More

Jamie Lynn Spears' book made headlines before its release for its passages about Britney Spears, but her older sister isn't the only topic of conversation in the memoir. The former Nickelodeon star, 30, detailed her relationship with her father, Jamie Spears, and her mother, Lynne Spears, in Things I Should Have Said, released on Tuesday, January 18. Months before the book's debut, a leaked passage revealed what happened after the Sweet Magnolias star told her parents that she was pregnant at age 16. "My daddy and I stopped speaking and the tension was terrible," the Zoey 101 alum wrote of her father, 69, noting that he encouraged her to put the baby up for adoption. "One person after another — and there were many — came to my room trying to convince me that having a baby at this point in my life was a terrible idea." Jamie Lynn, who was then in a relationship with now ex-fiancé Casey Aldridge, welcomed daughter Maddie, now 13, in June 2008. She also shares daughter Ivey, 3, with husband Jamie Watson, whom she wed in 2014. [jwplayer f7NE6M7y-zhNYySv2] Though the All That alum recalls her management team putting pressure on her to end her pregnancy, she also revealed that she hid the news from Britney, 40. When Jamie Lynn discovered she was expecting in 2007, her sister was in the midst of her messy split from ex-husband Kevin Federline. "My team believed everyone outside of the inner circle was a potential threat," the "How Could I Want More" songstress claimed in the book. "They went so far as hiding my pregnancy from my sister, claiming, 'It’s too risky to tell Britney about the baby.' I needed her more than ever, and she wasn’t able to help me in my most vulnerable time." According to Jamie Lynn, the "Toxic" singer didn't find out her little sister was pregnant until the news was announced in a magazine. "To this day, the hurt of not being able to tell my sister myself lingers," the "Sleepover" musician wrote. Britney, for her part, hasn't responded well to some of Jamie Lynn's promotion for the book. During a Wednesday, January 12, interview with Nightline, the Just Jordan alum recalled an alleged incident when the Grammy winner took a kitchen knife to a bedroom and locked both herself and her sister in the room. Jamie Lynn claimed her sister put the knife on the bedside table. Britney denied the incident ever happened. “Jamie Lynn … congrats babe! You’ve stooped to a whole new level of LOW,” the former X Factor judge tweeted on Friday, January 14. “I’ve never been around you ever with a knife or would I ever even think to do such!!!” Keep scrolling for more revelations from Jamie Lynn's book: [podcast_block]

Credit: Courtesy of Jamie Lynn Spears/Instagram

Jamie Lynn's Birth Was an Accident

According to Jamie Lynn, her parents didn't intend to add a third child to the family after welcoming Bryan Spears in 1977 and Britney in 1980, but her father never went for a checkup after having a vasectomy. "Momma didn’t talk to him for days, and she stayed mad for weeks. Daddy accepted another baby was joining the family," she wrote. "Momma just needed a little time to adjust to the idea of another baby at the time when Bryan and Britney were finally old enough to do a lot for themselves. My parents never considered aborting or giving me up for adoption."

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How Britney's Fame Affected the Family

Jamie Lynn, who was 7 when Britney's first album debuted, implied that her parents put the needs of her sister's career first at all times. "I was taught to defer to Britney or behave in a way that made things easier for her. Momma said stuff like, 'Come on, Jamie Lynn, we don’t want to upset your sister,'" the Louisiana native wrote. "It could be something as simple as 'Let Britney do that first,' or 'If it’s good for your sister, it’s good for all of us.' What complicated things even more was that Momma reveled in the attention that came with being Britney’s mother."

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Her Relationship With Her Dad

After Lynne and Jamie divorced in 2002, Jamie Lynn's relationship with her father suffered, in part because of his battle with alcoholism. "I always wanted to have Dad in my life, but never knowing if he was drinking caused me profound anxiety. Much of that anxiety was a result of Momma not doing what she should have done to protect me when he was on a bender," she wrote. "Daddy’s behavior and Momma’s enabling denied me essential moments of my life. We stopped communicating, and yet, and much to my dismay, he would show up in our apartment in California or on set."

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The 'Zoey 101' Drama

Before the book's release, Alexa Nikolas clapped back after discovering that one chapter discussed her alleged feud with Jamie Lynn during their time on Zoey 101. According to Jamie Lynn, she was initially friends with Nikolas, 29, but that changed after she grew closer to their other costar Kristin Herrera.

"At first, it was small lies — things like people saying I was mean or bitchy," Jamie Lynn alleged. "Everyone was telling me that Alexa was the one making the false claims." She said she went to producers at the time, but the rumors only got worse, with someone telling her that Nikolas had told some extras that Jamie Lynn "smelled bad." Later, a "particularly vicious" rumor spread that Jamie Lynn had lice. She often wondered if Nikolas' mother was instigating the alleged rumors as a method of having her kicked off the show.

Eventually, Jamie Lynn asked Britney for help, and her sister came to set and told Nikolas to stop "telling lies." The rumors stopped after that, but Jamie Lynn noted that Nikolas later claimed that she was the target of bullying on the Zoey 101 set.

Earlier this month, Nikolas denied Jamie Lynn's version of events. “I was pretty surprised to see her lying up a storm in there,” she wrote via Instagram earlier this month. “I recently thought we were fine after she tried to use me in her Zoey 101 music video to make herself look better after I finally came out about what happened to me while on set/being left out once again during the reunion reboot ploy.”

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Britney's Transformation

During a period where she lived with Britney and Lynne, Jamie Lynn said she began to notice that her sister was having "a difficult time" after her split from Federline, 43. "My normally sweet and free-spirited sister continued to morph into someone else — who was disturbed and paranoid at times," she wrote. "Sometimes she would lash out for no apparent reason or ignore me. Invariably, Britney would feel bad and later apologize."

Later on, Jamie Lynn detailed the alleged knife incident, which she claims occurred after Britney's brief marriage to Jason Alexander. "Britney continued to act erratically, and all I wanted was her interest and approval. I wanted my sister back," she wrote. "But instead, I saw the depth of her difficulty. She was paranoid and erratic. One time, she said to me, 'Baby, I’m scared,' and took a large knife from the kitchen, pulled me along to my room, and she locked us both inside. She put the knife in the bedside table drawer and simply repeated, 'I’m scared.' She needed me to sleep beside her."

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A Battle With Lynne

Jamie Lynn claimed that one fight with Lynne got so intense that her mother hit her with a purse. "She was angry and yelling at me, but when that didn’t yield the desired effect, she started hitting me with a large beaded purse that had, among other things, a camera inside," Jamie Lynn wrote. "She repeatedly swung the bag and landed several blows on my shoulders before she stopped."

When she came to work the next day, the Zoey 101 makeup artist noticed that she had "some scratches" on her neck and shoulders, but Jamie Lynn didn't tell him what happened.

Credit: Courtesy of Jamie Lynn Spears/Instagram

Her Mental Health Struggles

After moving to Nashville in 2011, Jamie Lynn saw a new psychologist who diagnosed her with depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Though she didn't find medication helpful, she eventually learned to cope with her mental health issues through therapy.

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Her Role in the Conservatorship

Jamie Lynn reiterated her claim that she wanted nothing to do with her sister's conservatorship, which lasted from 2008 to 2021. When Britney established her will, however, she asked Jamie Lynn to serve as a trustee for her sons Sean Preston, 16, and Jayden, 15.

"After several months and careful consideration, I decided to remove myself from that role, citing that the developing issues could potentially create a conflict," Jamie Lynn claimed. "My role was to remain impartial and simply be a sister and aunt. I have never participated in the conservatorship as my sister’s personal representative or her financial conservator."

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Where Things Stand With Britney

Despite the recent public back-and-forth between the sisters, Jamie Lynn said that Britney apologized for being angry at her over the conservatorship. "I pray for the day she shares these words with the world," she added. "I know the truth."