Britney Spears has been free from her conservatorship for several weeks now, and the pop star has continued to make it clear that she holds much of her family accountable for the terrible treatment she says she suffered during that 13-year court order. This includes her younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, whom Britney has been feuding with on and off, rather publicly, via social media for months. Now, Jamie Lynn has tearfully spoken out about the rift with Britney for the first time, saying that she “doesn’t know why we’re in this position right now.”
Jamie Lynn Spears, who’s set to return to the small screen in Sweet Magnolias Season 2 on Netflix soon, has gotten a lot of shade from the #FreeBritney movement for quite a while now, but it wasn’t until her older sister, Britney Spears, publicly began to do the same on Instagram, that many people truly understood how angry the singer was at her sibling. Jamie Lynn recently spoke to Good Morning America about the situation, and said that she loves and supports Britney, adding to that sentiment, which you can see in this clip from the interview:
.@ABC EXCLUSIVE: “I love my sister ... I’ve only ever loved and supported her and done what’s right by her.” Despite their complicated relationship, @jamielynnspears tells @JujuChangABC she still has a deep love for her big sister, @britneyspears. https://t.co/kWY5S6eOU4 pic.twitter.com/4SzC79lryEJanuary 12, 2022
In mid-July, Britney Spears detailed the way in which she felt the “people closest” to her left her “drowning” under a conservatorship she had likened to “sex-trafficking,” and noted that she believed any of them who showed public support after she spoke out against the conservatorship were only trying to “save face.” Around the same time, Jamie Lynn took to her social media to deny that she’d claimed a vacation property that her older sibling had bought many years earlier as her own, but after Britney’s fans came for her she removed her denial, and that set off the public fight between the sisters.
Jamie Lynn Spears went further in her GMA interview, which was done to promote the January 18 release of her new memoir, Things I Should Have Said, and added that she “was happy” when the conservatorship ended in November, and tried to explain her thoughts on the court order over the years:
When it was put into place I was 17 years old. I was about to have a baby, so I didn't understand what was happening. Nor was I focused on that. I was focused on the fact that I was a 17-year-old about to have a baby. I understand just as little about it then as I do now. There was a time where my sister asked me, [through] her trust and will, if I would be the person who ensured her boys got what they needed. Whether she’s in a conservatorship or not, that was a very normal thing, I thought. Once I realized, you know what, she’s in a conservatorship, I felt like I just didn’t want to be a part of [that] until maybe she’s out of the conservatorship. So, there was no, like, me overseeing funds or something like that. And if that was, it was a misunderstanding. But, either way, I took no steps to be a part of it.
The younger Spears continued, adding that she attempted to help Britney get out of the conservatorship because it was causing “discord,” but it simply didn’t work out:
I've always been my sister's biggest supporter. So, when she needed help, I set up ways to do so. Went out of my way to make sure that she had the contacts she needed to possibly go ahead and end this conservatorship and just end this all for our family. If it's going to cause this much discord, why continue it? Everyone has a voice, and it should be heard, so if she wanted to talk to other people, then I did, I set that up. I even spoke to her previous legal team, and that did not end well in my favor. 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.
Fans will likely remember that the book Jamie Lynn is now promoting caused a stir of its own last year. The original title for her memoir, I Must Confess: Family, Fame and Figuring It Out, was announced back in early July, but mid-October saw Jamie Lynn tell her followers that the title had been changed to Things I Should Have Said. This swap led to Britney appearing to troll her sister over it on social media. Just a few days later, after the singer’s many fans realized that Jamie Lynn had promised proceeds from her book to a mental health charity, they flooded the charity’s Instagram by commenting on posts with #CancelJamieLynnSpears and #FreeBritney, and the charity then declined her donation.
As for why she’s decided to speak about her relationship with Britney Spears now, Jamie Lynn Spears said that it was, in part, about her own daughters, Maddie (13), and Ivey (3), and noted:
It was really important to me to, first off, honor my voice. I have to do it or how else can I expect my daughters to stand up for themselves?
Time will tell whether or not speaking out will help to heal the rift between Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears, or if the sisters will be able to repair their relationship in spite of it and everything else that’s transpired over the years.
