Jamie Lynn Spears recently opened up about her challenges after getting pregnant with her first child, Maddie Aldridge, at 16. The actress recalled how she had to hide from the paparazzi and was called bad names for being pregnant at a young age.
Jamie had a huge fan base when she starred in Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101.” Everyone loved her character and her charisma. However, she left everyone shocked when she announced her pregnancy in 2007 when she was only 16 years old. From then on, everything went downhill for the actress.
The actress has finally opened up about her traumatic experience to fellow contestant Fred Sirieix, a French reality TV veteran, on Monday’s episode of the British TV show “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!” She said, “After I finished ‘Zoey (101)’, I had, you know, the love of my life – (or that) is what I would’ve thought – and I got pregnant. And I decided to keep the baby” (via USA Today).
However, Jamie Lynn Spears’ decision did not go well with her family and fans, who started shaming her. The scrutiny was brutal because she was starring in a kids’ show. In the episode, she exclaimed, “The whole world was like, ‘You’re a sl*t. You’re horrible. Your life’s over.’…Because I got pregnant young. I was on a kids’ show.”
Even her parents were “sad” as they were not able to come to terms with the situation of their “baby having a baby.” Although Lynn’s parents and other people “didn’t want” her “to have the baby,” she went ahead with the decision to keep it. However, the paparazzi weren’t leaving her alone, following her every move. To preserve her sanity and avoid “relentless” press coverage, Lynn “had to go hide away for a long time.”
Jamie Lynn Spears “moved to Mississippi and literally hid” and “put a gate around” her. Lynn divulged, “I had 20 paparazzi on me every day. They wouldn’t leave me alone. They came and lived in Mississippi [in] the middle of nowhere. It was horrible” (via Fox News).
Everyone Told Jamie Lynn Spears She Will Be ‘A Horrible Mom’
Although everyone was against Lynn having a baby at such a young age, she found her voice and decided not to terminate her pregnancy. She stated, “I hated it so much…everybody told me I was gonna be a horrible mom, so I was like, ‘I gotta raise this baby by myself.’ And so I did.”
Jamie Lynn Spears was engaged to Casey Aldridge, Maddie’s father, between 2008 and 2010. The star married husband Jamie Watson in 2014, and the couple welcomed their first child together, Ivy, in 2018.
