Britney Spears and sister Jamie Lynn feud explained – and the 5 bombshells Zoey 101 star could reveal on I’m A Celebrity
SIBLINGS often spend their whole lives bickering, but for celebrities, things are made harder when the public picks a side.
Britney Spears and her sister survived a tough childhood together, but as adults, their bond has come under repeated strain.
And now, things could get tricky once again thanks to Jamie Lynn signing up for I'm A Celebrity.
The actress, 32, was born a decade after her singing superstar sister, and spent much of her childhood touring with Britney, 41, and the rest of their family.
Their relationship appeared stable until 2018 when, according to a report by , Jamie Lynn became a partial trustee of Britney's estate.
It meant the younger sister would have a degree of control over the singer's assets, which were stored in her SJB Revocable Trust and intended to be used to help her children should she die.
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Britney didn't comment at the time. Jamie Lynn then publicly commented on her sister's situation, appearing to criticise the #FreeBritney movement as the backlash over the conservatorship gained momentum.
Attempts to protect sister
Shorly after Britney was checked into a mental health facility, which fans claimed was against her will, Jamie Lynn shared a photo of her protecting her older sister from the papparazzi.
She captioned it: “10 years ago, who was there?? I have been here long before anyone else and I’ll be here long after. I love my sister with everything I have. So anyone or anything that speaks to the contrary can GTFOH with all the comments about what you don’t understand.”
Later that year, the girls appeared to be on good terms, with Britney dying her hair brown and telling fans on social media that she had been inspired by her sister's change-up earlier in 2019.
But things took a turn for the worse a year later when it was reported that Zoey 101 actress Jamie Lynn was seeking more control over the singer's finances.
She also hit out at trolls leaving nasty comments on her posts about mental health - with many thinking she was referring to the Hit Me Baby One More Time hitmaker.
She wrote: “If you deal with mental illness or care for someone dealing with mental illness, then you know how important it is to respect the situation with privacy for the person, and the family trying to protect their loved ones, no matter how it may appear to the public, and as the public we must learn to do the same.”
In February 2021, Jamie Lynn denied attending a #freebritney rally shortly after the documentary Framing Britney Spears aired.
Then on June 23 that year, Britney announced that she wanted to sue her family over the conservatorship during a hearing about it.
The conservatorship took away the singer's control over her own life and finances, and it had been put in place in 2008 when she was hospitalised for her mental health.
Jamie Lynn denied the allegation and claimed she preferred holidaying at The Ritz Carlton instead.
Five bombshells Jamie might drop
PR Guru Carla Speight says: "Jamie Lynn will be the one to watch this series as it could go either way. She could spill the tea on everything conservatorship related and Britney too, or she could avoid it all together, though I doubt the campmates will allow the headlines and family drama to go undiscussed."
- Growing up in Britney's shadow:
Given how high-profile the dirty laundry airing in her family has been, Jamie Lynn has the perfect opportunity to put her side out there. During the campfire chats, she could open up and tell them how she felt growing up in Britney’s shadow. It would be a great opportunity for her to offer behind the scenes insight into what it was like watching Britney’s unravelling due to the pressure she was under from the media, her ex Kevin Federline and of course their father. - Childhood trauma: Britney offered us real insight into the traumatic childhood events that led to her relationship with her father being almost non existent. She even told us how deeply traumatic it was for her under the conservatorship. Jamie Lynn was a child throughout a lot of that and seemingly didn’t have the same upbringing. In I’m a Celeb, she has the perfect opportunity for the world to watch her on her own two feet and fully exposed without PR agents there to shield her. After time, I expect we will get some revelations about how it feels to be Britney’s sister and what it’s like being in the centre of a family feud.
- Britney on social media: After her own book promised to reveal all, I doubt she will comment too much on her opinion’s of Britney’s social media presence. I doubt Jamie Lynn will risk further death threats and online abuse from Britney’s fans by commenting on her behaviour. That would be a huge red flag to the trolls and they will attack her further.
- Britney's relationship with sons: It will be interesting to see what she reveals about Britney, her relationship with her boys and her family. They appear to be in a good place, so I doubt Jamie Lynn will be sharing too much. But what she will share will be well thought about and prepared by her own team and Britney’s too. Jamie Lynn will probably offer just enough insight to keep herself from being voted out of the camp and hold back on the bits that would cause more family feuds.
- Who Jamie Lynn is: Ultimately, the world will be watching hoping for her to spill the tea and she will be focused on showing the world she is her own person with a career in entertainment that she worked for and earned without her famous sister. She will also make sure that the most prevalent rumours and lies out there will be put straight and hopefully garner sympathy from the public and protect herself from any more backlash or online attacks from Britney’s fans.
A few months later, a mental-health non-profit turned down an offer of the profits from Jamie Lynn's memoir Things I Should Have Said, over a backlash to the Spears' family treatment of Britney.
The next month Jamie Lynn withdrew her application to be a trustee of Britney's estate and ten days later the conservatorship was ended.
In a post celebrating its end, Britney branded her family's behaviour “demoralising and degrading” and claimed she thought they “should be in jail”.
By January 2022, Britney had unfollowed her sister on social media and the younger sibling spoke out about their “confusing” relationship.
“I did take the steps to help, but how many times can I take the steps without, you know — she has to walk through the door,” Jamie Lynn said on Good Morning America. “There was a time where my sister asked me on her trust and will if I would be the person who was sure that her boys got what she needed.”
Accusations of fame mongering
In response, Britney accused her of attempting to use their relationship to sell her autobiography, as well as claiming her little sister “never had to work for anything” and that “everything was always given to her.”
Jamie countered, claiming Britney's private actions didn't match her public ones.
“It’s becoming exhausting when conversations, and texts we have in private don’t match what you post on social media,” Jamie Lynn Spears wrote. “I know you’re going through a lot and I never want to diminish that, but I also can’t diminish myself.”
In Jamie Lynn's autobiography, she claimed Britney locked them both in a room before threatening her with a knife - something the older sister denied.
In Jan 2022, she posted on Twitter: “Jamie Lynn .. congrats babe! You've stooped to a whole new level of LOW .. I've never been around you ever with a knife or would I ever even think to do such !!!
“The only knife I ever saw you with at home was cutting the biggest pieces of squash I ever saw in my life and it was way too big for me to cut… So please please stop with these crazy lies for the Hollywood books !!!”
Britney then climbed back down from the post with an open letter to her sister, which included: “Jamie Lynn … I don't think your book is about me at all … I said some harsh things because you obviously hurt me by the things you are making up about me.”
The stars continued to feud as Jamie Lynn promoted her book, and Britney claimed her sister was "f***ing hateful" and said she wanted to slap both her sister and her mum.
Siblings reunited
By December that year, the pair seemed to have reconciled with Britney posting about her little sister's success on her own birthday.
She wrote: “It’s my b-day but you’re my heart so I’m thinking about you … congratulations on being so brave, inspiring, and showing guts and glory in your show!!! You ain’t alone … if anybody knows what that feels like … I get it My baby sister !!! I love you !!!”
The post has since been deleted. Britney told fans six months later that she had been to visit her sibling.
Jamie then gushed about her family, saying: “I have nothing but absolute love for every single one of my family members.
“If I learned anything from last year, being so open and feeling like I had to defend myself at times, I don't feel like there's anything else that I need to say. I just have to leave it where it is because those conversations are meant to be personal. All I can focus on now is my girls, my husband and the work that I'm doing.”
The pair seemed to have found level footing, and Britney revealing she felt betrayed by her family in her own autobiography didn't reignite the feud.
"My sister and I should have found comfort in each other, but unfortunately that hasn't been the case,” she wrote. “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. Shouldn't sisters be able to confess their fear or vulnerability to each other without that later being used as evidence of instability?”
Britney's side of the story
In her book, The Woman In Me, she also acknowledged that her sister saw Britney's fame totally differently to the singer.
“It appeared that she thought it had been easy for me because so much fame had come to me so young, and that she blamed me for my success and everything that came with it,” she wrote.
Despite all the pain Britney and her sister caused each other, the singer acknowledge that Jamie Lynn had her own issues thanks to their parents and upbringing.
She wrote: "My heart goes out to her for all those reasons. She will always be my sister, and I love her and her beautiful family. I wish the absolute best for them.
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"She's been through a lot, including teen pregnancy, divorce, and her daughter's near-fatal accident. She's spoken about the pain of growing up in my shadow. I'm working to feel more compassion than anger toward her, and everyone who I feel has wronged me. It's not easy."
While the siblings are currently at peace, Jamie Lynn's appearance in the Jungle could fracture the foundations of their shaky truce.