Britney Spears' Dad and Mom, Jamie and Lynne: Her Ups and Downs with Her Parents

Here's a look back at the singer's relationship with her mom and dad through the years

Britney Spears and her parents, Lynne and Jamie Spears, have experienced their share of ups and downs through the years.

As Britney rose to fame in the early ‘90s, starring on The Mickey Mouse Club and later embarking on her singing career, her parents were by her side.

However, in recent years, Britney's relationship with her parents became more fraught, particularly in the wake of her fight to end her conservatorship, which was eventually terminated in November 2021.

"Honestly my family embarrassed me and hurt me deeply," Spears wrote in December 2021, adding that "tooting my own horn and seeing my past accomplishments reflecting back at me actually helped" her overcome her insecurities.

"Last year was growth for me," she added. "I still have a ways to go!!!"

Now, Britney is opening up about her life and career in her memoir, The Woman in Me. “Over the past 15 years or even at the start of my career, I sat back while people spoke about me and told my story for me,” Britney tells PEOPLE via email in a cover story about the book and her life now. “After getting out of my conservatorship, I was finally free to tell my story without consequences from the people in charge of my life.”

Here’s a look back at her ups and downs with her parents.

Related: Britney Spears Debuts a First Look at Her New Memoir with a Cover Story in PEOPLE

Britney's parents raised her and her siblings in Louisiana

After tying the knot in 1976, Lynne and Jamie welcomed their first child, Britney’s older brother Bryan Spears in 1977. Though Lynne filed for divorce in 1980, requesting a temporary restraining order against Jamie, per The New York Times, they later reconciled, and Britney was born in 1981. They welcomed their third child, Jamie Lynn, in 1991.

Lynne and Jamie moved from McComb, Mississippi, to Kentwood, Louisiana, where Britney and her siblings were raised. Lynne ran a daycare and worked as a schoolteacher, while Jamie ran a successful construction business and owned a seafood restaurant called Granny’s.

Britney developed an interest in music at a young age, telling Variety in 1999 that one of her first performances was at her kindergarten graduation. She also talked about her parents’ early support for her singing career, saying, “I’m so thankful because they’ve supported me from the very beginning. They just know that I love to sing and this is what I’ve always wanted to do, so they’ve been behind me 100% from the very beginning.”

Lynne Spears moved to N.Y.C. so Britney could attend a performing arts school

In 1991, Britney moved to New York City with her mother and younger sister to enroll in the Professional Performing Arts School. At the time, her father and brother stayed behind in Kentwood.

As Britney’s career took off in the early ‘90s, including booking The Mickey Mouse Club in 1993 and signing with Jive Records in 1997, Lynne and her longtime friend Felicia Culotta took turns traveling with Britney.

During the “Framing Britney Spears” episode of The New York Times Presents in February 2021, Britney’s agent at the time, Nancy Carson, recalled seeing Jamie around much less. “Jamie visited from time to time and was anxious to see this time be worthwhile so that he could justify the money that it was costing to do this,” she said.

Former Jive executive Kim Kaiman added in the documentary, “Her mother would do whatever it took, personally and for the family’s sake, for Britney to be a star. I never talked to her father. The only thing Jamie ever said to me was, ‘My daughter is going to be so rich she’s going to buy me a boat.’ "

Lynne Spears and Britney Spears collaborated on projects during her career

In addition to overseeing Britney’s early career, including accompanying her on tours and briefly working on her fan club and website, Lynne has also collaborated with Britney on a handful of projects.

Together, they have co-written two books: a biographical book about Britney titled Heart to Heart in 2000 and a novel loosely based on Britney’s life titled A Mother's Gift in 2001. The latter was adapted as a TV film for ABC Family titled Brave New Girl in 2004. Both Britney and Lynne served as executive producers on the film.

Britney was by her dad’s side through various health issues

As detailed in Lynne’s 2008 memoir, Through the Storm, Jamie dealt with alcoholism throughout their marriage.

Jamie “always enjoyed a beer here and there, but he didn’t start drinking heavily until after Bryan was born,” she wrote in her memoir, per the New York Post's Page Six. (Jamie eventually went to rehab in 2004, as reported by The New York Times.)

Jamie dealt with another health issue in November 2018 as he suffered a near-fatal colon rupture. As a result, he underwent emergency surgery and was hospitalized for 28 days. At the time, Britney announced that she was going on an “indefinite work hiatus” amid her father’s health issues, including putting her Las Vegas residency on hold.

“I don’t even know where to start with this, because this is so tough for me to say,” Britney wrote on Twitter, along with a childhood photo of her with her parents. “I will not be performing my new show Domination. I’ve been looking forward to this show and seeing all of you this year, so doing this breaks my heart.”

“However, it’s important to always put your family first… and that’s the decision I had to make,” Britney continued in a follow-up tweet. “A couple of months ago, my father was hospitalized and almost died. We’re all so grateful that he came out of it alive, but he still has a long road ahead of him.”

A statement obtained by PEOPLE read further, "I am dedicating my focus and energy to care for my family. We have a very special relationship and I want to be with my family at this time just like they have always been there for me.”

Britney and Jamie Spears made headlines for her conservatorship battle

In 2008, after publicly experiencing a mental health crisis, Britney was put under a court-ordered conservatorship, which placed Jamie and a lawyer in charge of her personal and financial affairs.

On June 23, 2021, Britney spoke for the first time about her conservatorship as she challenged it in court. "I've lied and told the whole world I'm OK and I'm happy," she said, adding: "I'm not happy. I can't sleep. I'm depressed. I cry every day."

Jamie was removed from his role as Spears’s estate conservator in September 2021 after the singer’s lawyer asked the court to suspend him, and the entire conservatorship was eventually terminated that November.

In December 2022, Jamie spoke to Daily Mail, defending his role during his daughter’s conservatorship. “Not everybody’s going to agree with me,” Jamie said. “It’s been one hell of a time. But I love my daughter with all my heart and soul. Where would Britney be right now without that conservatorship? And I don’t know if she’d be alive. I don’t.”

“I became a robot. But not just a robot — a sort of child-robot. I had been so infantilized that I was losing pieces of what made me feel like myself,” Spears writes in an excerpt from her memoir, shared exclusively with PEOPLE. “The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child. I became more of an entity than a person onstage. I had always felt music in my bones and my blood; they stole that from me.”

In another excerpt, Spears writes that she lost what little autonomy she had over her own body during the conservatorship and alleges that Jamie made hurtful comments about her weight.

“I’d been eyeballed so much growing up, I’d been looked up and down, had people telling me what they thought of my body, since I was a teenager. Shaving my head and acting out were my ways of pushing back,” she writes. “But under the conservatorship I was made to understand that those days were now over. I had to grow my hair out and get back into shape. I had to go to bed early and take whatever medication they told me to take.”

Spears continues: “If I thought getting criticized about my body in the press was bad, it hurt even more from my own father. He repeatedly told me I looked fat and that I was going to have to do something about it.”

Britney recently reconciled with her mom

At the time that the conservatorship was ending, Britney posted to Instagram that she blamed her mother for some of her current situation. " "Pssss my dad may have started the conservatorship 13 years ago … but what people don't know is that my mom is the one who gave him the idea !!!!" Britney wrote in a since-deleted post. "I will never get those years back ... She secretly ruined my life."

Britney revealed in May 2023 that she has since reconciled with her mother. "My sweet mama showed up at my door step yesterday after 3 years … it's been such a long time … with family there's always things that need to be worked out … but time heals all wounds !!!" Britney wrote on Instagram.

Suggesting they were able to mend things during the meet-up, she continued, "After being able to communicate what I've held in for an extremely long time, I feel so blessed we were able to try to make things RIGHT !!! I love 💕 you so much !!! Psss… I'm so blessed we can have coffee together after 14 years !!! Let's go shopping afterwards !!!"

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