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BRITNEY Spears has had her fair share of trauma throughout her life, but her sister Jamie Lynn's life changed dramatically when she became a teen mum.
She was forced to give up her TV career on Nickelodeon show Zoey 101, when news of her teen pregnancy was announced, and she even tried to “divorce” her parents.
Crying to First Dates’ Fred Siriex on I’m A Celebrity last night, Jamie Lynn, now 32, said: “They didn’t want me to have the baby. A lot of people around me.”
Jamie Lynn was just 16 when she fell pregnant with her boyfriend at the time, Casey Aldridge, who was 18.
She was one of Nickelodeon’s biggest stars, fronting the hit show Zoey 101, and knew a teen pregnancy wouldn’t be welcome, later emotionally confessing her reputation went from "child star to sl*t" overnight.
She later said: “I am mortified to have to tell my parents this and my family this.
“That was all I was thinking about: 'These are the people I love that I have to tell, and also, I'm pregnant.
“‘There's a human being growing inside of me, and I'm so young, I'm almost a baby myself.' "
In her 2022 memoir Things I Should Have Said, Jamie Lynn claimed her parents even tried to convince her to get an abortion, telling her a baby would wreck her work.
She said: “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."
Despite this, she and Casey quickly got engaged and welcomed their daughter Maddie Briann, now 15, on June 19, 2008.
Zoey 101 also came to an end after three years, as her pregnancy hit the headlines.
On I’m A Celebrity, Jamie Lynn said: “After I finished Zoey, I had my love of my life, what I thought, I decided to keep the baby.
“I was 16. The whole world was like, ‘You’re a sl*t, you’re horrible, your life is over…’”
She even revealed she tried to “divorce” her parents at the time.
She said: “When I got out of that, I told my parents I was going to emancipate them, that way I could make my own decisions.
“I was secretly telling her I was going to doctor's appointments. I was going to meetings with a lawyer… My poor mum, we put her through it.
“She didn’t want me to do that, she knew that would mean I’d probably marry the father and lose my fortune that I’d amassed over the years of working.
“She said, ‘Just go baby…’. It was the first time I was in control.
“My mum did [come and visit]. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, why I wouldn’t take the easy route sometimes, but I just don’t want to.”
Jamie Lynn eventually split with Maddie’s father Casey after two years.
She soon started dating Jamie Watson, a businessman who owns communications service Advanced Media Partners.
And, after two years of on-off dating, they announced their engagement in March 2013.
Jamie Lynn was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder that same year.
She underwent therapy and briefly used medication as well.
"The anxiety was to the point where I couldn't function," she wrote in her book. "I'm very conscious not to lie to myself anymore because I think that my biggest issue my whole life was pretending to be perfect."
But Jamie Lynn has said that Jamie, who she married in 2014, was who gave her “peace”.
"I was an 18 year old single mum when this guy came into my life,” Jamie Lynn wrote on Instagram for their eight-year anniversary. "He made me laugh more than I ever had before, and his never changing consistency gave me stability for the first time in my life.
“Maybe it was just because he was 10 years older and had already established a successful life for himself both personally and professionally, but nonetheless, I felt a sense of peace with him, and I think that’s what being in love is supposed to feel like, just feeling at peace."
They went on to have a daughter together, Ivey, five, completing their family.
But Jamie Lynn came close to tragedy in 2017 when she nearly lost her daughter in a quad bike accident.
Maddie, who was eight at the time, accidentally drove the quad bike into the pond at her mum and step-dad’s house, and almost drowned.
Jamie and Jamie Lynn dived in and were able to rescue their daughter, and get her airlifted to hospital.
But she was unconscious in a coma for two days before waking up.
Speaking of the incident on podcast Better Together with Maria Menounos, Jamie Lynn said: “We thought she was gone. We thought we lost our daughter.
“That moment, I felt everything that you can feel, I think, as far as the worst. "There's nothing worse than looking at your child and just feeling that you've failed her. And I didn't want her to think that I couldn't save her."
And in her memoir, she added: "When you have the worst thing you can think of in your life happen to you, it makes you look at everything else differently. You have a lot more gratitude
"That was a miracle.”
In 2018, fans were shocked when Jamie posted a picture of Maddie barefoot in a T-shirt and shorts, holding a shotgun, almost as big as her, pointed in the sky.
He captioned it: “Getting her ready for dove season.”
Some fans slammed the dad and Jamie Lynn over the pic, with one saying: “Put down the gun, pick up a pair of binoculars & take a hike together. For me, teaching kids to kill when there is absolutely no need seems very, very wrong.”
Others voiced their support, saying: “You’re a wonderful father to Maddie. Teaching her right. So many kids are hung up on video games and their iPads they never see the outdoors. So kudos to you!”
Jamie Lynn and Britney grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana where hunting wildlife is a popular activity.
But children who wish to hunt doves can’t receive a licence until they’re 16.
Despite the criticism, however, the proud mum has turned her teenage heartache around and now even her two beloved daughters have followed her into acting, appearing in the Zoey 102 film released earlier this year.
“Having my two girls be a part of this film and get to make their little debut cameo, if you will, it was so special because they got to do it together,” she told Entertainment Tonight.
“There’s been a lot of times where I felt like I’ve been fighting for my seat at the table.
"I have to show them that you can do that and also have to provide for them and be somebody who’s doing something they love.
"I think it all comes down to the fact that I do want my daughters to create the life they want. So how else can I teach them that by trying to do it myself?”
