Jamie Lynn Spears is opening up about her “complicated” relationship with sister Britney Spears after the “…Baby One More Time” singer’s conservatorship was terminated in November. Speaking with ABC News’ Juju Chang on Good Morning America about her new memoir, Things I Should Have Said, due out Jan. 18, Jamie Lynn said she was “happy” to see her sister free after years in a binding legal conservatorship.
“When it was put into place I was 17 years old. I was about to have a baby, so I didn’t understand what was happening. Nor was I focused on that. I was focused on the fact that I was a 17-year-old about to have a baby,” the Zoey 101 alum explained. “I understand just as little about it then as I do now. …There was no me overseeing funds or something like that, and if there was [that perception], that was a misunderstanding, but either way I took no steps to be a part of it.”
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Calling herself her sister’s “biggest supporter,” Jamie Lynn claimed she went out of her way to help Britney put an end to her conservatorship. “So when she needed help, I set up ways to do so. Went out of my way to make sure that she had the contacts she needed to possibly go ahead and end this conservatorship and just end this all for our family,” she told Chang. “If it’s going to cause this much discord, why continue it?”
Jamie Lynn claimed she even spoke to Britney’s previous legal team, which she said “did not end well” in her favor. “I did take the steps to help. How many times can I take the steps without … She has to walk through the door,” she continued. Britney testified in court twice last year that the conservatorship, long controlled by father Jamie Spears, was “abusive,” alleging she was formed to perform, use birth control and be medicated against her will.
The “Toxic” singer has since spoken critically of her family on social media, and even unfollowed her sister on Instagram in what fans suspect was an indication of ill will between the two. According to Jamie Lynn, however, she has no bad blood with the Grammy winner. “That love is still there 100%, I love my sister,” she said Wednesday. “I’ve only ever loved and supported her and done what’s right by her. And she knows that. So, I don’t know why we’re in this position right now.”