Jamie Lynn Spears got candid about the reaction to her teen pregnancy while Zoey 101 was still on the air. “When I was not much older than my daughter is now … I became pregnant, and yes, that was something that I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me,” Jamie Lynn said on the Better Tomorrow With Hannah Brown podcast. “That doesn’t make sense for everyone else, but it made sense for me, and the whole world came down and told me I was the worst human alive for doing so, and that every young girl who ever watched my show was going to be ruined because of me and my personal decision.”
Britney Spears’ little sister added, “I take responsibility. I didn’t want to let anybody down, but I had to do what was right for me.”
The now 32-year-old actress announced she was expecting her first child with then-boyfriend Casey Aldridge in December 2007 when she was just 16. Her announcement came just before Zoey 101’s fourth and final season premiered on Nickelodeon. The show had already been canceled and filmed prior to Jamie Lynn revealing her pregnancy.
Following Jamie Lynn’s teen pregnancy reveal, she received intense public backlash for her decision. “[People were] having the conversation of young girls my age were having sex. And I think people didn’t want that … Of like, this is going on, but a lot of them aren’t getting pregnant” she said. “If I would’ve had an abortion, no one would have known about it, but it wouldn’t have changed the fact that I had sex. So I think that was really the bigger conversation, like, ‘Now, young girls are going to want to have sex, or they are.'”
Her daughter, Maddie, is now 15 years old and has a brief cameo in Zoey 102, the Zoey 101 sequel movie that premiered on July 27. Jamie Lynn’s second daughter, Ivey, whom she shares with husband Jamie Watson, also has a cameo in the film.
“When my daughter came on set of [Zoey 102], she was like, ‘Wow, Mom, I can’t believe all of these people are here because of your show, and you did that, I’m so proud of you,'” Jamie Lynn said. “And I swear to you that was like the moment that I was like, ‘Thank you, God. Thank you so much, that moment makes it all worth it.'”