On January 17, Alexandra Cooper, creator, and host of Spotify-exclusive podcast Call Her Daddy, teased her upcoming episode featuring the one and only Jamie Lynn Spears, younger sister to the princess of pop, Britney Spears. On January 18, Jamie Lynn released her book Things I Should Have Said (which, notably, has a rating of 1.5/5 stars on GoodReads) in an attempt to “tell her unfiltered story on her own terms.” Jamie Lynn claims her book isn’t banking on Britney’s rise to fame and the inconsistent dynamic between the two sisters, however, she references her popstar sister 290 times…
In June of 2021, Britney Spears petitioned the court to end the conservatorship that had been controlling her every move for thirteen years — with her father as her co-conservator. Using social media to inform her fans discreetly of her pain, Britney was once again communicating with fans, however, hidden the messages were. The internet blew up with allegations surrounding Britney’s family — specifically Jamie Lynn’s participation in the conservatorship. Once the toxicity surrounding Britney’s conservatorship was made public and #FreeBritney started trending, Britney fans have had an issue with the former “Zoey 101” star — accusing her of being a snake and questioning her relationship with Britney. The minute the Jamie Lynn Call Her Daddy episode was released, “Daddies” (fans of the podcast) were enraged. Fans were commenting on Cooper’s podcast trailer on Instagram saying, “This is not the Spears that deserves to be heard,” and “Why give her a platform just for her to continue exploiting her sister for fame and money?”
During the two-part episode series, it’s clear Cooper was eager to get the facts from Jamie Lynn. Approaching Jamie Lynn with hard-hitting questions and being unafraid to ask for the proof, Alexandra Cooper may have just assisted the Spears family in ending the confusion around Jamie’s participation in the conservatorship. I admit that this was not the Spears sister I really wanted to be hearing from — I think Britney should have a chance to tell her story as well. For all my die-hard Britney stans out there, here’s a breakdown of the interview that’s making listeners aware of the toxicity that exists in the Spears family.
1. Jamie Lynn called Britney her “protector” growing up.
It’s clear that throughout Jamie Lynn’s entire life, all she’s wanted was to have a reliable relationship with her sister. Through a childhood of always feeling like an afterthought, Jamie Lynn relied on her relationship with her sister to feel seen and heard within her family. Because of the age difference between her and Britney (10 years), Jamie Lynn said in the CHD interview, “I felt like she was my protector.” As Britney’s fame grew, Jamie Lynn knew how hard Britney worked, so she was willing to slip into the background just to make sure her sister was successful. In the interview, Jamie Lynn talks very fondly of her sister, constantly talking about how much love she has for the “…Baby One More Time” singer.
From the way she speaks about her beginning years, it just sounds like Jamie Lynn had a bad case of “youngest child syndrome.” However, as she starts talking about her parents and how quickly Britney’s fame escalated, that’s when the dynamic changes.
2. she considered Justin Timberlake a “father figure.”
While talking to the Call Her Daddy host, Jamie Lynn sheds light on how Britney’s relationships — specifically Justin Timberlake — affected the way she viewed her sister as an individual. According to Jamie Lynn, JT helped her realize that her biological father wasn’t anything a father should be. She even said one of the first “healthy male father figures” in her life was Timberlake. “Being around my sister’s boyfriends imitated what I thought was safe,” Spears told Cooper.
Jamie Lynn briefly mentions when she was made aware of how little she truly knew about Justin and Britney’s relationship. As she learned more about the power of media and after seeing how hurt Britney was after the breakup, Jamie Lynn hinted that it could’ve been a ploy to kickstart Justin’s solo career out of NSYNC. Once “Cry Me a River,” Justin’s breakup song, was released in 2002 — that fact was almost proven. Jamie Lynn talks about how her sister was visibly “changing in front of [her] eyes.”
3. Britney’s fame caused uncertainty in the Spears household.
In her book, Jamie Lynn references an experience that took place between her and her sister when she physically felt unsafe. Jamie Lynn could see that her sister was fearful for her life when Britney allegedly got a knife from the kitchen, locked Jamie Lynn and herself in a bedroom, and asked her little sister to sleep by her side. Britney denies that this story ever happened. This traumatic experience happened quickly after Britney ran away to Vegas to marry her childhood friend, only to get annulled 55 hours later. Jamie Lynn talks about how that experience was dismissed by not only her family but the family’s public relations and legal teams.
“I wasn’t allowed to have feelings about anything. I started to really not make a big deal out of things,” Jamie Lynn shared on the podcast. She noticed that once her reactions to things were ignored, she started to ignore them herself.
4. jamie lynn was aware of how unhappy Britney was.
According to the podcast interview, when Jamie Lynn was made aware of Britney’s unhappiness surrounding her career and personal life, she supposedly wanted to do something about it. “Somebody should’ve said ‘stop the presses, give this girl a minute,’” Jamie Lynn said, in reference to viewing her sister quickly becoming overwhelmed by fame and the challenges that come with it. However, being a minor, there wasn’t much she could do about it except love her sister unconditionally, and she says on the podcast that growing up, that’s all she tried to do.
5. Jamie Lynn is a survivor of physical abuse.
Jamie Lynn shared that around her teen years, she started to be physically abused by her mother — something she has never shared with the media before. She was careful to point out that this was not a normal occurrence for her mother, but Cooper stepped in to remind Jamie Lynn that that doesn’t excuse the behavior. Jamie Lynn made a point to remind listeners that she is still working through these experiences in real-time — realizing that the first few steps in the healing process are saying the issues out loud. “I have to respect my experiences and I guess I just don’t know how to do that because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I’d rather be in pain than cause pain,” Jamie Lynn tells Cooper.
6. Britney and Jamie Lynn learned about each other through the media.
One of the biggest jaw-droppers in the Call Her Daddy interview was when Jamie revealed that she found out that Britney was hospitalized for mental evaluation twice during Jamie’s teen pregnancy. Supposedly, she received this information the same way the public did — from the media. Apparently, Britney found out about 16-year-old Jamie’s pregnancy from OK! Magazine. “They thought it was too risky to tell Britney about the baby,” Spears says. Based on this story, it sounds like it was commonplace for the Spears family to keep things from each other.
7. Jamie Lynn attempted to emancipate.
As it turns out, Britney Spears was not the first in the family to take legal action against the parents. Jamie Lynn, while not speaking to her father at the time, reportedly met with a lawyer on several occasions in an effort to emancipate. Eager to maintain their daughter’s positive reputation, her parents gradually separated themselves from her life, escaping legal emancipation. The interview shed light on the fact that Jamie Lynn and Britney’s experiences with their parents and the legal teams surrounding them were often similar, if not identical.
8. Jamie Lynn claims she tried to “free” Britney.
It appears one of the biggest reasons for the online hate toward Jamie Lynn is that fans don’t believe she did anything to help Britney out of the conservatorship — thus leading to skepticism about Jamie Lynn’s legal position in Britney’s life. Not only did Jamie Lynn claim she reached out to judges and lawyers to figure out how Britney could escape legal strain, but she allegedly also came up with a plan to actually #FreeBritney. According to Jamie’s statements on CHD, Jamie was made aware of a legal loophole — where Britney could come and legally live in another state, outside of California where the conservatorship was held, and after six months of living outside of California, the conservatorship would dissolve. Of course, Jamie Lynn is vague on the details surrounding this claim — leaving some listeners confused.
9. She denies being part of Britney’s conservatorship.
On the podcast, Cooper asked Jamie Lynn point-blank if she was involved at any point with the well-known conservatorship. Jamie’s response: “I never had one part in anything in Britney’s conservatorship or her life at all revolving around the conservatorship.” During the episode, Jamie Lynn even brings up legal documents that prove that the legal conversation between the two sisters was about Jamie Lynn being a trustee over Britney’s will and protecting Britney’s two sons.
Because it was required that Britney’s actions be reported to the California court that controlled the conservatorship, Jamie Lynn claims that she felt “uneasy” even being considered to be a legal trustee for Britney. “I didn’t want to sign anything that connected me to the conservatorship,” Jamie Lynn tells Cooper on the podcast.
10. She addressed the rumor about Britney’s phone.
In 2011, tabloids reported that Britney was banned from having a cell phone. In a 2021 New York Times article, a former employee of Britney’s security came forward saying her private phone conversations were used as a way to control and silence her. In The New York Times documentary released in November 2021, “Controlling Britney Spears,” another former employee of the conservatorship said, “Britney Spears’s father had a security firm tap into her phone and bug her bedroom.” When Cooper asked Jamie Lynn about the cell phone rumors, she responded, “I was in contact with her” — but in the legal conservatorship files, there is not a single mention of Britney not having access to her phone.
During the summer of 2021, Britney appeared frequently on social media bringing awareness to the disrespect, manipulation, and toxicity that occurred within her “family.” Based on Jamie’s responses in the podcast interview, these rants made Jamie Lynn feel helpless. Jamie Lynn reportedly received a text message from Britney later on, saying that Jamie has the power to change the way she is viewed by the public — which Cooper provided the receipts for once again on the podcast. Britney apparently said, “I know it’s not your fault and I’m sorry for being so angry at you. Although I’m your big sister, I need you more than you need me and always have.” However, even after this text message, not much appeared to change, and Britney then unfollowed Jamie Lynn on Instagram.
After the interview, Cooper noticed some gaps in the story and got back in touch with Jamie Lynn to ask for some clarity. Interestingly, this Zoom meeting was included in the second half of the second episode. At the Zoom meeting, Jamie pulls up a text message sent to Britney and Britney’s boyfriend with information regarding Britney’s legal team. Apparently, Jamie Lynn felt that the lawyers involved with Britney and their mother were crooked — using the drama that fueled this relationship as a way to make more money. There are three bullet points included in the text message — each giving Britney valuable opinions about the state of her legal affairs. “All I could do is give her the information I had and that’s what I tried to do,” Jamie Lynn claims.
Apparently, Jamie Lynn is unclear on whether or not Britney ever received that message. Jamie Lynn reportedly stopped talking to her mother to demonstrate to Britney that she was on her side.
When asked about the criticism from others on social media, Jamie Lynn said she “knew people were going to criticize her” for speaking on CHD and for bringing up Britney again. However, given the upcoming release of her book, she felt she owed people “an explanation.” Jamie also told Cooper that she was worried if she didn’t address the issues between her and her sister, they would escalate out of control.
It appears Jamie is done talking about her drama with Britney, and she allegedly wants to work on getting her family back to normal. At the end of the two-hour interview, Jamie Lynn said she still is only “occasionally in contact” with her sister. She then says on-air, “All I want to do is love and support my sister and end this nonsense.”
On January 19, after the podcast series was released, Jamie Lynn received a cease-and-desist order from her sister ordering Jamie Lynn to stop talking about Britney while promoting her book. So, I don’t think Jamie Lynn is getting her “normal” family dynamic back anytime soon…
In my opinion, what makes this interview different from other Jamie Lynn media appearances is that Cooper held her accountable for her responses; she asked for text receipts, showed the legal documents that supported Jamie’s claims, and didn’t overly sympathize with her. By asking thoughtful questions and being an unbiased reporter, Cooper provided a fresh new perspective — one that shows the obvious necessary healing that needs to take place not only for Britney but for Jamie Lynn as well.