At one point in time, Britney Spears and sister Jamie Lynn appeared inseparable – at least in front of cameras.
With Britney shooting to super stardom at the age of 16, it seemed Jamie Lynn – who is now appearing on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here – was ready to follow in her footsteps.
Kicking off an acting career with shows like Zoey 101 as a teen, Jamie Lynn was supported by her sister when she ended up pregnant at the age of 16.
When Britney’s public mental health battle became public, it seemed Jamie Lynn was there for her.
However, over the years it became clear that what was happening behind closed doors was not how it was portrayed in the eyes of fans.
Over the past five years, with Britney vocally fighting a 13-year conservatorship that left her unable to make her own personal and financial decisions, things got even more complicated.
Sibling Rivalry
Britney’s fame at the age of 16 has proven to be a double-edged sword for the family, and drove a wedge between the sisters.
Britney has claimed in her book, The Woman In Me, that Jamie Lynn was ‘entitled’ from a young age as she reaped the benefits of her hard work as the ‘breadwinner’ of the entire family with an easy upbringing.
On the other hand, Jamie Lynn said in an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast she felt like ‘an afterthought’ in the eyes of her parents next to her famous sister.
As a result, both appear to have blamed the other for at least some of their personal upset, and have taken it out on each other in differing ways.
Jamie Lynn’s most fatal error in the eyes of fans was the release of her memoir, Things I Should Have Said, in January 2022.
Among the claims in the book, Jamie Lynn alleged she once was locked in a room due to Britney having a knife – something Britney adamantly denies.
On the announcement of the memoir in October 2021, Jamie Lynn initially announced her intention to give the proceeds to mental health charity This Is My Brave.
The charity in response publicly turned the donation down after being bombarded with FreeBritney campaigners who believed accepting the money was them ‘agreeing with the conservatorship’.
Britney herself claimed her sister was “stooping low” and “trying to sell the book at her expense”, calling the alleged knife incident a “crazy lie”.
She later wrote on Instagram: “My sister was the baby. She never had to work for anything. Everything was always given to her!!!”
Jamie Lynn insisted the book “wasn’t about Britney” but she couldn’t help the fact the Sometimes singer was in some of the experiences as a result of being her sister.
“I’ve worked hard since before I was even a teenager, and I’ve built my career in spite of just being someone’s little sister,” Jamie Lynn would say in another post.
Britney later backtracked on the comment and said she just felt ‘hurt’ that her sister was ‘acting aloof’ about the behaviour of their father in the conservatorship.
A cease and desist letter was sent out to stop Jamie Lynn speaking ‘in a derogatory way’ against her sister in the promotion of the book shortly thereafter.
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Money
Jamie Lynn was named among those who benefitted from her remaining in the conservatorship, which for the most part was run by the pair’s father, Jamie.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, she had been a trustee of some of Britney’s SJB Revocable Trust from 2018 – a trust fund created to secure financial assets for the Toxic singer’s two children, Sean Preston and Jayden James.
However, it was noted at the time it would have made Jamie Lynn responsible for giving the funds to the boys in the event of Britney’s death.
But in August 2020, Jamie Lynn filed requests for the money from the trusts to be moved to a series of ‘blocked account’ which she would be in control of.
The LA Times claimed this would mean the assets would require a judges approval to remove them.
In 2021, Jamie Lynn hit back at claims she was on her sister’s ‘payroll’ the same way her father had been for the past 12 years.
When a news article revealed she was the only family member not on her sister’s payroll, she begged fans to “leave her broke ass alone” as she shared the article.
The same year, Jamie Lynn had to deny her sister paid for a $1million vacation home in Florida for her and her family, telling fans to ‘stop reaching’.
That November, she filed documents moving to cease her control of any of Britney’s financial affairs.
In January 2022, she told Good Morning America that she thought her being named as a trustee was ‘normal’.
She said: “There was a time where my sister asked me, of her trust and will, if I would be the person who was sure that her boys got what they needed.
“Whether she’s in a conservatorship or not, that was a very normal thing, I thought.”
Britney’s Conservatorship and its fallout
Britney was in a conservatorship held by her father, Jamie, from 2008 to 2021, for ‘the sake of her own wellbeing’.
The highly restrictive legal guardianship meant the adult star had no control over her finances, personal decisions including getting married and having children, or her work commitments.
As part of this, court documents – and Britney’s book The Woman In Me – claim Jamie paid himself $16,000 a month across 12 years as her conservator.
In June 2021, during a hearing testimony to fight for the end of her conservatorship, Britney claimed her dad had abused his position of control in her life, and announced her intent to sue the family.
Jamie Lynn posted her support days later, following backlash for silence from FreeBritney campaigners, declaring she “loved, adored and supported” her sister and “didn’t care if she wanted to run away to a rainforest […] or dominate the world”.
She later claimed she received death threats for both her and her daughters from campaigners regarding her previous conservatorship comments.
The FreeBritney Movement
Jamie Lynn’s feelings on the Free Britney movement have proven to be divisive.
In 2019, Britney was ‘voluntarily’ taken to a mental health facility again – only this time, a leaked voice note suggested she had been forced to do so rather than needing to.
The message sparked a fire on the ‘Free Britney’ movement – a fan campaign led on the belief that the singer was being unfairly held in the conservatorship unnecessarily and against her will.
Jamie Lynn insisted at the time she ‘loved her sister with everything she has’, sharing old videos where she was seen defending Britney from a barrage of paparazzi.
In 2021, she denied she was present at a virtual FreeBritney rally, which was arranged as a direct result of documentary Framing Britney Spears, which dove into the conservatorship and questioned the need for it.
“Someone represented themselves as me without my knowledge. I love my sister very much, but I was not aware of the rally, nor was I in attendance for the virtual rally,” she wrote on Instagram.
After the conservatorship ended, Jamie Lynn claimed she never fully understood what the legal arrangement even meant but was ‘happy’ it had ended.
“I love my sister. I’ve only ever loved and supported her, and done what’s right by her, and she knows that,” Jamie Lynn told GMA in her January 2022 interview. “So I don’t know why we’re in this position right now.”
The Ups and Downs
Throughout the conservatorship and beyond, Jamie Lynn and Britney have been seen both sending loving and hateful messages to each other on social media in equal measure.
Seemingly still not too old to have sibling squabbles.
Across the years, Britney has been seen extending loving messages to her sister and Jamie Lynn’s two daughters, with Jamie Lynn sending her thanks for a box of teddy bears in 2021.
However, just days later it seemed they were on the outs, with Britney hitting out at those who “didn’t put her hand out while she was drowning”.
“There’s nothing worse than when the people closest to you who never showed up for you post things in regard to your situation whatever it may be and speak righteously for support,” she wrote.
While she never mentioned her sister, it came just a day after Jamie Lynn celebrated a court ruling allowing Britney to pick her own legal counsel – and then the day after that, Britney called out Jamie Lynn for dancing to remixes of her songs at the 2017 Radio Disney awards
Britney then vowed never to perform again as long as Jamie was connected to the trust fund.
Britney’s conservatorship finally ended in November 2021, with Britney celebrating before declaring her family should ‘all be in jail’ for allowing the 13-year long hold on her life to continue for so long.
By the end of that year, she had unfollowed Jamie Lynn on Instagram.
With the release of Jamie Lynn’s book, things took an even darker turn, with the duo trading posts and allegations through Instagram comments.
“Brit, I am always here, you know behind the scenes I have always been here. It’s become exhausting when conversations, and texts we have in private don’t match what you post on social media,” Jamie Lynn wrote after one. “I know you’re going through a lot and I never want to diminish that, but I also can’t diminish myself.”
The pair later made up, with Britney saying her sister worked hard and had “done amazing”, even though she felt she could’ve done more around the conservatorship and questioned her “loyalty”.
By the end of January 2022, she called Jamie Lynn ‘scum’ for the “lies” in her memoir and “making money” off her.
But in a complete U-turn by the end of the year, Britney celebrated her own birthday by sharing a post honouring her sister, calling her “brave, inspiring, and showing guts and glory” and calling her “my baby sister”.
The start of 2023 appeared to set a more positive outlook for the duo, with Britney claiming that June she had visited Jamie Lynn on the set of her Netflix show, Sweet Magnolias.
“I’ve missed you guys so much !!!” Britney wrote on Instagram. “Loyal girls stay home but it’s so nice to visit family!!!”
“I have nothing but absolute love for every single one of my family members,” Jamie Lynn told Variety that July. “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.
However, at the end of October, Britney released her memoir The Woman In Me, detailing their fractured relationship – including her hurt feelings once again on her sister’s memoir.
“As I was fighting the conservatorship and receiving a lot of press attention, she was writing a book capitalizing on it,” she wrote. “She rushed out salacious stories about me, many of them hurtful and outrageous. I was really let down.”
However, she noted that Jamie Lynn’s life was not as easy as she once perceived.
“She will always be my sister, and I love her and her beautiful family,” she wrote. “I wish the absolute best for them. 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.”
As part of their seeming new truce, Jamie Lynn has made efforts not to go into too much detail about Britney during her time on I’m A Celebrity.
However, she noted she “loves her sister” and that “sisters fight”.
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