‘I don’t want them to feel pain, I’ll carry it.’ The story that will change your mind about Jamie Lynn Spears.

There are few people on earth more divisive than Jamie Lynn Spears. 

And yet, it's not easy to nail down exactly why Britney Spears' famous younger sibling is someone people love to hate. 

For many years, Jamie peacefully existed until the #FreeBritney movement sent Britney fans with their pitchforks to Jamie's door, in response to the child star being noticeably silent throughout Britney's conservatorship. 

For Jamie Lynn's silence, she was considered by the court of public opinion as complicit in Britney's claims of abuse, almost receiving as much blame as Britney's father, Jamie Spears, who was the person instated as the singer's conservator in 2008. 

In November 2021, Britney had her conservatorship terminated and in the years since, she's done little to sway fans away from putting the blame on her younger sibling. 

In one Instagram post in 2022, the pop singer wrote about how she has been hurt by her sister Jamie Lynn in the past. "I don't like that my sister showed up at an awards show and performed MY SONGS to remixes!!!!! My so-called support system hurt me deeply."

She was referring to the time her younger sister performed a mix of her songs at the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards.

This led the Sweet Magnolias star to caption an Instagram post with "May the peace of the Lord be with you, and your spirit," which Britney not-so-subtlety replied with "May the Lord wrap your mean ass up in joy today." 

Britney then unfollowed her sister. 

As the sisters exchanged online barbs, the internet ate it right up with Britney Spears most often portrayed as the 'hero' against her villainous younger sister. 

Jamie Lynn addressed critics who attacked her for not speaking up during Britney's conservatorship in a lengthy Instagram post. “I felt like until my sister was able to speak for herself and say what she felt she needed to say publicly, that it wasn’t my place and it wasn’t the right thing to do," she said on her Instagram story. 

“Maybe I haven’t supported her the way the public would like me to, with a hashtag on a public platform, but I can assure you that I’ve supported my sister long before there was a hashtag, and I’ll support her long after. Note that.”

Despite her explaination, Britney's stans were out for blood, flooding her comments with hateful messages. It's worth noting that Jamie was only a teenager when Britney was first put under a conservatorship. 

Jamie Lynn is back in the media right now and she's finally speaking out about how it felt to feel like one of the most hated people in the world. 

She is currently promoting the film reboot of her mid-00s series Zoe 101, a Paramount+ sequel titled Zoey 102, which the actress also executive produced. 

In an interview with Variety, Jamie appeared uncomfortable and evasive each time the interviewer mentioned Britney, even though the siblings appear to be on better terms, with the pop star sharing she had visited her sister on set.

Listen to The Spill's hosts discuss Jamie Lynn's redemption moment. Post continues after podcast. 

When asked what her current relationship with Britney was like, she simply said "I have nothing but absolute love for every single one of my family members."

Jamie then pivoted to speaking about the criticism leveled at her in the past year. "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. All I can focus on now is my girls, my husband and the work that I’m doing."

When Jamie was asked about how "tough" the last year was for her, she started to tear up with emotion. "It makes me sad. I don’t want my daughter to feel that way. So I have to say I will absolutely not allow my children — especially my oldest daughter, who was very affected by all of it — I will not allow her to feel this way in her life," she said. 

“I don’t ever want them to feel the pain or the scrutiny. That’s not necessary and it’s not theirs to carry. So I’ll carry it. That’s fine.”

Despite what her critics might suggest, Jamie Lynn hasn't had the easiest life. Born as the younger sister of the most famous pop star in the world, Jamie rose to fame in her own right in 2004 playing the titular character in Zoe 101. The series ran for four seasons but came to a crashing end when Jamie became pregnant at 16 years old. 

The unexpected pregnancy was portrayed in the media as a 'scandal', with Jamie and her then-18-year-old boyfriend Casey Aldridge having their faces plastered across every gossip magazine. The pregnancy also threw ice over Jamie Lynn's blossoming career. 

"I think when I wrapped Zoey there were all these plans of things like, 'Let’s go do movies.' I was reading scripts for things I was excited about," Jamie told Variety. "But like a lot of young girls, I thought I was in love. And there I am, pregnant at 16. I was so concerned about bringing another human being into this world, but I needed to figure out who I was." 

In her memoir Things I Should Have Said, Spears detailed just how traumatic this time in her life was, and how many people in her inner circle tried to convince her to have an abortion. In the end, she was shipped off to an undisclosed location in an "insufferable" cabin while she was pregnant. 

Again, she was only 16 years old at the time.  

"No one on the team listened to me and I was stopped each time I wanted to speak up. This environment felt oppressive, and I started to think about doing something drastic," she wrote in her memoir. 

The traumatic experience almost prompted Jamie to get emancipated from her parents, but in the end, she didn't go through with the drastic measure. 

The singer/actor gave birth to Maddie Briann Aldridge in June 2008, and she's since had a second daughter, Ivey Joan with husband Jamie Watson, who was born in 2018. 

Jamie Lynn's acting career finally got back on track in 2019 when she was cast as Noreen Fitzgibbons in Netflix's romance drama series Sweet Magnolias. 

"My strength is out of the love for my children and wanting to make sure that I don’t give way to anything other than what I know to be authentic and true," she said to Variety. "It was hard, but at the end of the day, look where I am now."

Jamie's daughter Ivey makes a cameo in the Zoey 102 film. And as for her kids' Aunt Britney, she said she hopes they're proud. "Look at what your family’s done and accomplished. We came from a small town, and now everybody’s fascinated by the good and, especially, the bad. 

"But look at what an example of a strong female you have." 

Feature image: Getty.