Critics predicted Britney’s sister’s career would end following teenage pregnancy – but she’s proved them very wrong

At just 16 years old, Jamie Lynn Spears had the world at her feet: a superstar older sister, Britney, who could open all sorts of doors, and a starring role in hit Nickelodeon series Zoey 101.

She was tipped as a rising star, the next big thing and showered with honours and awards that recognised her as a young talent to watch.

With Britney one of the most successful musicians of all time, Jamie Lynn certainly had a lot to live up to and she seemed to be doing it brilliantly, making a name for herself away from her sister’s shadow.

But at the end of 2007, it seemed like Jamie Lynn’s hard work would crash down around her: she discovered she was pregnant, at the age of 16.

Jamie Lynn pictured in 2014 is now a successful recording artist ( Image: Getty)

With big sister Britney Spears in 2005 ( Image: Rex)

JAMIE LYNN SPEARS DISCUSSES REALITY OF HER TEEN PREGNANCY

After being sold as a role model for young girls everywhere, the teenager found herself expecting a baby with childhood sweetheart and first-ever boyfriend, Casey Aldridge.

Overnight, she was thrust into the global tabloid spotlight, accused of glamourising teen pregnancy and called a disappointment to the young girls who looked up to her. Critics predicted the end of her career as a wholesome, Southern schoolgirl star, while Jamie herself retreated from the limelight.

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But she refused to be remembered as the girl with a teenage pregnancy and, after raising Maddie away from the spotlight, burst back onto the showbiz scene again, reinventing herself a a serious country singer.

And throughout, Maddie, has been her top priority in life.

A rising star in Hollywood

Having Britney Spears as an older sister meant Jamie Lynn was exposed to the bright lights of Hollywood from an early age. She won a role playing Britney’s younger sister in the movie Crossroads in 2002, before nabbing a part in Nickelodeon sketch show, All That.

Jamie Lynn starred in her own Nickelodeon show, Zoey 101 ( Image: Reuters)

That led to a spinoff show, Zoey 101, which followed the lives of schoolgirl Zoey Brooks (Jamie Lynn) and her friends at their fictional boarding school in California. She also recorded the theme song, Follow Me, which was written by Britney.

Zoey 101 was a huge ratings success and firmly cemented Jamie Lynn’s place as a rising Hollywood starlet. She was nominated for a string of big awards and won titles including Favourite TV Actress at the 2006 Kids’ Choice Awards and two Young Artist Awards.

The teen pregnancy shock

Jamie Lynn had returned home after wrapping Zoey 101 in Los Angeles when she began to feel sick, prompting a friend to suggest she took a pregnancy test. She took the test in a local petrol station bathroom.

Sep 2007: Jamie-Lynn Spears arrives at the Us Weekly Hot Hollywood Party at Opera in L

Jamie Lynn recalled taking the pregnancy test in her TLC documentary ( Image: TLC)

“I remember I kept getting sick and throwing up,” she recalled in her 2016 TLC documentary, When The Lights Go Out.

“My friend said, ‘You don’t think you could be pregnant?’ I said, ‘No, not possible!’ She said, ‘Let’s get our friend to buy a pregnancy test’ so we stopped to get gas and she said to go take the test, as we didn’t want to do it at home.

“I went into the BP [garage] and took a pregnancy test… The test was positive and I was pregnant. So I got the news in the ladies’ room at the BP. Sums it all up.”

Telling her parents

Jamie Lynn was too scared to tell her parents about her pregnancy to their face, so wrote her mother a note which she left in another room while she waited nearby.

Jamie Lynn broke the news to her parents via a letter she left in another room of the house ( Image: Getty)

With dad Jamie in her TLC documentary ( Image: TLC)

With mum Lynne and daughter Maddie in 2016 ( Image: FilmMagic, Inc)

“I’m not going to sugar coat it,” she said in her TLC documentary. “Things weren’t great for a while there. I felt extremely guilty because I’d lived my life trying to be this perfect girl all the time and I was about to let everybody down.”

Her parents admitted to being stunned by the news, but stood behind her. “For me, I think the world stopped for a couple of seconds,” said dad Jamie, while mum Lynne said: “I was afraid for her.”

And telling the world…

The next thing to tackle was telling the world and it was decided Jamie Lynn would give an interview to OK magazine, so she could tell her story in her own words.

“I knew I needed to give an explanation to my fans, and I wanted it to be in my words first. I had to make a decision that I could sleep with every night,” she told Glamour in 2012

Jamie gave an exclusive interview to OK magazine about her pregnancy ( Image: OK! Magazine)

“I did feel responsible for the young girls and the mothers who I probably confused and let down. I apologise for that. But I wasn’t trying to glamorize teen pregnancy. I hated when [the tabloids] said that. Everybody is dealt a hand of cards. It was my choice to play them the way I played them.

“I was already upset about having to tell my parents and Casey’s parents. To have the world come down on a situation that was already affecting my family hugely was hard. But this was my situation, and I did the best I could.”

The reaction from Nickelodeon

Everybody wanted to know what would happen to Zoey 101 following Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy; could the show continue when the show’s role model star was expecting?

Jamie has made it clear she was never pregnant on the set of Zoey 101 – it happened after filming had wrapped.

Jamie Lynn was backed by Nickelodeon ( Image:Getty Images North America)

There were rumours that Zoey 101 had been cancelled as a result of the pregnancy, but Nickelodeon released a statement praising Jamie Lynn’s strength in sharing the news with the world.

“We respect Jamie Lynn’s decision to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation. We know this is a very difficult time for her and her family, and our primary concern right now is for Jamie Lynn’s well being.”

Leaving Hollywood – and her career

Jamie Lynn chose to retreat from the spotlight after her pregnancy bombshell, saying she wanted to focus on her unborn baby and the future.

“It was about taking time to reflect on what kind of future I wanted to create, because I was bringing another life into this world. I needed to really grow up myself so I could be the woman that my daughter deserves. And not everything needs to be seen or heard,” she told Cosmopolitan .

Jamie Lynn raised Maddie away from the spotlight

Pictured with Maddie in an Instagram photo ( Image:jamielynnspears/Instagram)

She said career wasn’t even on her mind and she wasn’t thinking about what she was walking away from; only that she did the right thing for her and her unborn child.

“I really wasn’t thinking about career. It was more like, I’m about to have a child, I’ve got to set up a home. I’ve got to remove myself, so I can figure out how to grow to be the mother that this child deserves. Career was on the back-burner.”

A new life in Mississippi

After the pregnancy shock, Jamie’s then-boyfriend Casey proposed to her and she accepted. They began a new life together in Mississippi, far away from the spotlight of Los Angeles – although the tabloids still found her.

Jamie Lynn’s life in Mississippi was far away from the glitz and glamour of an LA red carpet ( ImageGetty Images North America)“I did not live in the middle of LA, I wasn’t asking for this attention,” she told ET Online in 2016.

“I knew my story was going to be something people wanted to know about, of course, [it’s] tabloid gold. … The hardest part for me was trying to figure out why these grown men were following this young girl around who is already going through so much in the middle of nowhere. I was so scared already, I didn’t want that added pressure.”

Becoming a mum

Maddie Briannn Aldridge was born on 19 June, 2008. Jamie Lynn had a natural delivery – despite reports of a C-section at the time.

Family including sister Britney were at the birth.

Jamie kissing Maddie in a scene from her TLC documentary ( Image:TLC)

“I had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect delivery. I was very blessed,” she told OK afterwards.

“The first time I saw her, it was surreal. You can’t even imagine that moment. She just looked at me, and she really didn’t cry at first. I was scared, and then she started screaming. It is the best feeling in the world.”

Missing out on normal teenage life

Falling pregnant at 16 meant that inevitably Jamie Lynn missed out on some of the normal activities of a teenager.

“I would be lying if I said if I didn’t miss out on what normal teenagers do, of course,” she told ET Online last year.

“But I don’t need pity for that. It’s a situation that I put myself in and it’s called being responsible. You have to be an adult, there is no sitting around and feeling sorry for yourself.”

Jamie has said she wouldn’t change her teenage years for anything ( Image:TLC)

Splitting from Casey

Jamie Lynn’s romance with her childhood sweetheart Casey didn’t last and they split in 2010.

“Maddie’s father was the only boyfriend I’d ever had, so for me it was, this little girl deserves a family; a mother and a father,” she said in her TLC show.

“He tried to do the right thing and he asked me to marry him. We were engaged for a while but I think I realised rushing into something that wasn’t right would ultimately be worse.”

Jamie Lynn attending the CMT Music Awards in 2015 ( 
Image:
Jason Merritt/Getty)

Jamie Lynn Spears admits she found out she was pregnant at 16 in a petrol station toilet

Getting back to work behind the scenes

When Maddie was around one year old, Jamie Lynn decided to move to Nashville to pursue a country music career in order to provide the best for her daughter.

“Even though I was out of the spotlight, I was working very hard on creating a great song catalogue and setting some real cemented foundation for a future for us,” she said.

“Every day was guitar lessons, voice lessons, bettering myself at my craft so I could be the best version of myself for this.”

Finding love again

Jamie began dating businessman Jamie Watson in 2010, after her split from Casey, and following an on-off relationship, they finally sealed the deal with an engagement in 2013 and a marriage the following year.

Maddie was guest of honour.

Jamie Lynn announcing her engagement in 2013 ( 
Image:
INSTAGRAM)

She married Jamie Watson in 2014 ( 
Image:
Twitter)

With husband Jamie and daughter Maddie on her wedding day ( 
Image:
FoxPeteFox / Instagram)
“It was kind of inevitable that it was gonna happen, but it’s really nice to be a wife and to have a husband, and to really have that family. It’s all official now, and it just all feels really good,” she told Taste of Country .

The comeback

Best known for being a teen comedy actress, when Jamie Lynn returned to the spotlight it was in a very different guise: that of a serious country artist.

After spending several years working away behind the scenes in Nashville, she released debut album The Country on her own record label, Sweet Jamie Music, and has gone on to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and open for Alabama.

Her debut single, How Could I Want More, entered the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 Country Songs.