Jamie Lynn Spears’ Memoir Gives New Context To Her Feud With Britney

Even at the peak of Britney Spears’ celebrity, her success story was inextricable from her family. Her mother, Lynne, often appeared alongside her on TV, beaming with pride as she talked about raising a future pop star on Oprah or MTV. Their relationship was packaged in books, like the 2000 scrapbook memoir Heart to Heart and a saccharine YA novel, 2001’s A Mother’s Gift.

And the youngest born, Jamie Lynn, was part of the package too. She often popped up in the background of Britney’s TV specials, goofing off and looking like a mini Brit. Hamming it up for the cameras led to more professional acting, like a spot on Nickelodeon’s tween version of SNL, All That, and eventually her own show on the network, Zoey 101, which premiered in 2005.

But then the family’s image started cratering. First came Britney’s public divorce and tussles with paparazzi in 2007, which culminated in a battle with her parents and the establishment of a conservatorship. That same year, Jamie Lynn Spears became pregnant at 16, making her prime tabloid fodder.

For over a decade, neither Britney nor Jamie Lynn really talked in depth about what it was like growing up in their family or living up to their wholesome images. That changed in 2019, as #FreeBritney led to the pop star speaking out about what she saw as her family’s abuse of her conservatorship. “I would like to sue my family,” she said in court, bluntly.

And since then, the public has been litigating the family’s actions. A lot of the spotlight has been directed at dad Jamie, who became the face of the conservatorship. But the Britney stan army has also questioned the support of her mother, the actions of her brother, and most recently the involvement of her sister, whom Britney unfollowed on Instagram after some exchanges about Jamie Lynn’s new memoir, Things I Should Have Said.

The book is a sometimes revealing, if often elliptical and grammatically challenged, story about the toxic patterns caused by growing up in a show business household. “My siblings and I have been traumatized by the distorted vision my parents have of loyalty and success,” Jamie Lynn writes. “I want Britney and the world to know she isn’t the only one who is left with scars from our early years of delinquency and manipulation.” It’s also the latest chapter of the family’s very public processing of what feels like an ongoing reality show.

It’s well known that Britney’s early years were turbulent as the family supported her show business dreams, struggled financially, and dealt with patriarch Jamie’s reported alcoholism. “Momma was often working and taking care of the family,” Jamie Lynn writes. “She was also dealing with the complexities of an addict husband.” (Her parents have not publicly responded to any of the allegations Jamie Lynn makes about them in her memoir.)

Britney had to become like a “second mother” to Jamie Lynn, she writes. And the children were all expected to aid their mother, including in covering things up to avoid their father’s anger.

For instance, according to the memoir, when Britney crashed a car that her mom had let her drive, Lynne quickly changed seats with her so Jamie wouldn’t lash out. “We all pretended — said things or stayed quiet,” Jamie Lynn writes, “to make sure Daddy was placated and their relationship remained intact.”

The parents traveled a lot, to be with Britney as she worked toward her dreams, and then especially as she became a huge superstar. “Momma reveled in the attention that came with being Britney’s mother,” Jamie Lynn says. “People were more interested in who she was than ever before, and I think she loved that part of it.” The implication is that Jamie Lynn often felt like an afterthought.

The dynamic of Britney being more of a mother figure than Lynne continued even after she became one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Britney encouraged her little sister’s camera hog tendencies, making her the star performer behind the scenes of her early tours. Soon, Jamie Lynn was doing commercials for Clorox and Pepsi. Eventually the Nickelodeon show premiered, and both Lynne and Jamie Lynn moved to California.

Maybe because she’s still trying to protect her mom, the book has a…