Jamie Lynn Spears recalls being told her teen pregnancy 'ruined' girls who watched Zoey 101
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Jamie Lynn Spears is opening up about the personal and professional challenges she faced when she became pregnant at 16 and ended up walking away from her hit Nickelodeon show Zoey 101.
During a candid appearance on Hannah Brown's Better Tomorrow podcast with SiriusXM, the actress and singer, 32, recalled how her teen pregnancy sparked a media frenzy and made her the target of harsh public criticism.
"When I was not much older than my daughter is now… I became pregnant, and yes, that was something that I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me," Spears said. "That doesn't make sense for everyone else, but it made sense for me, and the whole world came down and told me I was the worst human alive for doing so, and that every young girl who ever watched my show was going to be ruined because of me and my personal decision. I take responsibility, I didn't want to let anybody down, but I had to do what was right for me."
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images Jamie Lynn Spears
What seemed to set people off, Spears said, was that she "was having the conversation of young girls my age were having sex. And I think people didn't want that." She added, "If I would've had an abortion, no one would have known about it, but it wouldn't have changed the fact that I had sex. So I think that was really the bigger conversation."
In today's world, Spears hopes things would play out differently. "But it just shows you, just 15 years ago I was being shamed as a woman for making a choice about my own life," she said. "And on a public scale, I mean there was not one — no one said one good thing. It was just like, 'You are the worst, you've ruined everything, every child now, wow, what a let-down you are.' And so I just think that like, I would hope that we would do better."
After departing Zoey 101 in 2008 and spending years out of the spotlight in Mississippi, Spears recently returned for the revival movie Zoey 102, which premiered Thursday on Paramount+. Discussing the movie on Better Tomorrow, Spears called it a "full-circle moment" and reflected on how meaningful it was to her.
"When my daughter came on set of [Zoey 102], she was like, 'Wow, Mom, I can't believe all of these people are here because of your show, and you did that, I'm so proud of you,'" Spears said. "And I swear to you that was like the moment that I was like, 'Thank you, God. Thank you so much, that moment makes it all worth it.'"
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