Report: Jamie Lynn Spears’ Parents Pushed Adoption, Abortion Over Giving Birth at 17
Jamie Lynn Spears shares more of her teenage pregnancy journey in a new book called Things I Should Have Said. The actor and singer reportedly reveals that her parents did not want her to have a baby at age 17, fearing it'd ruin her career.
TMZ obtained experts from the book and reports that Spears says her inner circle tried to convince her having the baby was a bad idea. "It will kill your career," the website says she wrote. "You are just too young. You don’t know what you’re doing. There are pills you can take. We can help you take care of this problem … I know a doctor.'"
Spears was 16 years old when she revealed that she and boyfriend Casey Aldridge had made a baby. The couple would get engaged and move in together after daughter Maddie was born in June 2008. In the book, the now 30-year-old Spears says that abortion and adoption were options that were pushed hard on her.
This isn't the first time the Zoey 101 star has spoken candidly about the incident. A song called "Shotgun Wedding" from her country EP The Journey (2014) is pulled from her real life. In it, she describes a carefree romance that leads to an unplanned pregnancy, and then plans for a quickie wedding.
"It’s true to the lyrics because you know, got the news at the ladies room at the BP," she told Taste of Country with a blushing smile in June 2014. "I was like, ‘Can I say that?’ Chris (co-writer Chris Tompkins) was like, ‘If it happened, you can say it.'"
"It ain't 'cause mama didn't raise me right / Ain't 'cause daddy didn't try try try / Two bored kids on a Friday night / Got to kissing in the dark in a parking lot / Calling up family and we're making plans / Giving me a hand-me-down wedding band / Ready or not, daddy's gonna give his blessing / On a shotgun wedding," she sings.
OK! Magazine would eventually break the news of her pregnancy in 2007. Spears says she and her mother retreated to a cabin in Connecticut until it was out, spending Thanksgiving 2008 together. "Momma wore her disappointment like her favorite jacket," she writes.
Maddie is now 13 years old and has a younger half-sister named Ivey (3), fathered by Jamie Watson, Spears' husband of seven years.
As a country singer, Jamie Lynn Spears has released one EP and three singles, including the critically acclaimed "How Could I Want More."