Jamie Lynn Spears has surprised UK audiences by entering the Australian jungle as an I'm A Celebrity contestant, joining the likes of Nigel Farage in one of the most talked-about star lineups in years.
The singer, author and actor has been part of pop culture for decades, and now… she's taking part in one of the UK's standout TV shows. She's already skydived into camp and taken part in her first bushtucker trial – and no doubt there's much more to come.
If you're hooked on the show already, here's everything you need to know about Jamie Lynn Spears…
Who is Jamie Lynn Spears?She is, of course, Britney Spears' younger sister – the siblings are nearly 10 years apart in age. Jamie Lynn grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana and started out in the entertainment world at 10 years-old.
Jamie Lynn appeared in Crossroads (the 2002 film starring Britney herself) as the young version of Britney Spears' character Lucy. She then starred in her very own Nickelodeon TV series Zoey 101. She reprised her role as Zoey earlier this year in Zoey 102, a Paramount+ sequel film that revisits the TV show's old gang, this time in their 20s attending a wedding together. Netflix also snapped her up, with Jamie Lynn starring in romance drama Sweet Magnolias back in 2019.
Country music, not pop, is more of her vibe. Jamie Lynn spent some time in Nashville from 2011, releasing her first single How Could I Want More in 2013 and her second Sleepover in 2016.
She then released her memoir Things I Should Have Said: Family, Fame, and Figuring it Out last year. The “unfiltered” take on Britney's conservatorship caused some backlash, with Britney calling the things Jamie Lynn wrote about her “salacious”.
“My sister and I should have found comfort in each other, but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case. As I was fighting the conservatorship and receiving a lot of press attention, she was writing a book capitalising on it,” she wrote.
Britney later reflects on the compassion she feels for Jamie Lynn: "She will always be my sister, and I love her and her beautiful family. I wish the absolute best for them. She’s been through a lot, including teen pregnancy, divorce, and her daughter’s near-fatal accident.
“She’s spoken about the pain of growing up in my shadow. I’m working to feel more compassion than anger toward her, and everyone who I feel has wronged me. It’s not easy.”
Her appearance on I'm A Celeb isn't Jamie Lynn's first foray into reality TV. Her run on the US version of Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing With The Stars, was what inspired her to go to the jungle.
"Dancing with the Stars was such a wonderful experience but this is very different. This is all about personally pushing yourself,” she said before I'm A Celeb began.
“Everything I have seen I have been afraid of,” she added. “Absolutely every one of these trials I am dreading. I haven’t looked at any of them and thought, ‘Oh cool, I could do that one’. This is going to be terrifying.”
When asked about her personal strengths, Jamie Lynn said: “I think my best quality is the fact that it takes a lot to hurt my feelings. Unless you are my children or my immediate family, nothing is going to hurt me. I can take a lot of sh*t and it doesn’t get me down, so I really think it’s a good quality to have in a place where a lot of stuff is thrown at you!”
Jamie Lynn Spears' children and family lifeJamie Lynn has two daughters, named Maddie, 15, and Ivey, 5. The singer welcomed her older daughter Maddie when she was 17, after learning that she was pregnant at 16. On I'm A Celebrity, the star got emotional while sharing that the ‘people around her’ didn't want her to keep her daughter.
She said: "When I first got pregnant... They didn't want me to have the baby. A lot of people around me." She added that her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, had a "lot going on" and were "sad" about the situation – saying: "But also it's your baby is having a baby. I had to go hide away for a long time because they were relentless."
Jamie Lynn talks about her sister Britney Spears on I'm A CelebrityUnsurprisingly, Jamie Lynn's campmates have been curious to ask her about her famous family – and during a recent episode, she addressed her relationship with her sister Britney.
“I think every family fights and has their stuff but I talked to her before I came here and we love each other,” she said.
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