After announcing her underage pregnancy, Jamie Lynn Spears was informed she was “ruining” the young girls who watched Zoey 101.
Jamie Lynn played the main role in the teen Nickelodeon sitcom from 2005 to 2008.
However, the then-16-year-old actress disclosed she was pregnant in 2007, causing controversy and prompting some parents to urge that the network not show the impending fourth season because it would be a harmful effect on their children.
The programme was not terminated because of Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy, although it did conclude around a month before she gave birth.
Now, the 32-year-old has spoken out about the criticism and media storm that she became the centre of, stating that she was steadfast in her choice to continue her pregnancy.
‘That was something I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me,’ she explained of her decision to quit the series and focus on becoming a mother.
‘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,’ she added.
Jamie Lynn left not just the show, but also Hollywood, and relocated to Mississippi’s “middle of nowhere” to escape the limelight and live a quieter life.
‘I didn’t have a cell phone, I had a house phone. I was like, “No one call me””, [and] I put myself on a budget”, she explained when speaking on the Better Tomorrow podcast.
‘I had a budget for, like, 10 years that I lived very strictly by and I just wanted to be normal and I just really wanted to be away [from the public eye].’
She did, however, return to television in 2018 with an appearance on the game show Double Dare, before being featured in the Netflix romantic comedy Sweet Magnolias the following year.
This week also saw the release of Zoey 102, a film that follows the heroine reuniting with her high school pals while attending a wedding.
Returning to the part was a “pinch-me moment” for the actress, who described it as a “dream come true” to bring the tale and characters back to life.
Maddie, Jamie Lynn’s daughter with ex-boyfriend Casey Aldridge, was born in June 2008.
She and husband Jamie Watson had their second child, daughter Ivey Joan, in 2018.
Zoey 102 is now streaming on Paramount Plus.