West Side Story star Rachel Zegler apologized Monday for joking about the feud between sisters Britney Spears and Jamie Lynn Spears over the weekend. The 20-year-old Zegler recorded a video of herself dramatically reading one of Spears’ Twitter messages to Jamie Lynn. The feud between the Spears sisters reached a new level after Jamie Lynn made shocking allegations in an interview with ABC News’ Nightline to promote her memoir Things I Should Have Said.
“Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Britney and am rooting for her always,” Zegler tweeted after she deleted her video. “While I meant no disrespect whatsoever, I should have thought about how this could be perceived, and I’m so sorry for upsetting or disappointing anyone.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Golden Globe winner continued, “This is not a situation to be taken lightly, and we should all be lifting Britney up in this pivotal time. Thanks for hearing me out, and a big thank you to all who held me accountable.” Although Zegler deleted the video she apologized for, it was re-posted by others.
In her Nightline interview, Jamie Lynn, 30, described getting into an argument with Spears, 40, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. She claimed Spears “got in her face” while she held her daughter Ivey, 3. “I just walked out of the rooms. I was like, we’re just all family under one roof. I’m not trying to argue,” Jamie Lynn told Juju Chang, reports PEOPLE. “And when I try to remove myself from the situation, that’s when I guess she just got really angry and my oldest daughter [13-year-old Maddie] tried to, you know, mediate the situation.” Jamie Lynn “hated that” since she didn’t want her daughter to be in that position.
Jamie Lynn claimed her parents Lynne and Jamie Spears told her not to “upset” her older sister. “I said, ‘You just saw me and my children be upset. When will I matter?’” Jamie Lynn recalled.
In her response to the interview, Spears accused her of stooping “to a whole new level of low.” She denied Jamie Lynn’s story that Spears once pulled out a knife and locked them both in a room. “The only knife I ever saw you with at home was cutting the biggest pieces of squash I ever saw in my life and it was way too big for me to cut,” Spears wrote on Jan. 14. “So please please stop with these crazy lies for the Hollywood books!!!” This is the message Zegler recreated in her video.
On Friday, Jamie Lynn responded, claiming that she is “always here” to support her older sister and said that accusations Spears made on social media do not “match” reality. She also said she receives death threats after Spears posts about her. This prompted another response from Spears on Saturday, in which she said she “unconditionally” loves Jamie Lynn, but stands by her assertion that some of what Jamie Lynn has said is not true.
“I don’t think your book is about me at all… I said some harsh things because you obviously hurt me by the things you are making up about me,” Spears wrote on Saturday. “But it doesn’t make sense at all to me what you are saying!!! I know you worked hard for the life you have and you have done amazing!!!! But I think we would both have to agree to the fact that the family has never been remotely as hard on you as they have been on me!!! What Dad did to me, they don’t even do that to criminals… so for you to sit back and act completely aloof to what has happened to me is honestly insane to me!!!”