Jamie Lynn Spears has broken her silence about her older sister Britney Spears following the singer’s public statements in her conservatorship trial.
“I just want to take a second to address a few things,” Jamie, 30, said on Monday in a video posted to her Instagram story. “The only reason I haven’t before is because I felt like, before my sister was able to speak for herself and say what she felt she needed to say publicly, that it wasn’t my place and it wasn’t the right thing to do. But now that she’s very clearly spoken and said what she needed to say, I feel like I can follow her lead and say what I feel I need to say. I think it’s extremely clear, since the day I was born, I’ve only loved, adored and supported my sister.”
Earlier, Jamie was trolled for apparently not publicly standing up for Britney, 39, who has been locked in a legal guardianship for 13 years and has been fighting to be let free from it. Jamie, a former singer and actress, even turned off the comments on her Instagram page due to the backlash.
“This is my freaking big sister before any of this [expletive],” Jamie said. “I don’t care if she wants to run away to a rainforest and have a zillion babies in the middle of nowhere, or she wants to come back and dominate the world the way she has so many times before — because I have nothing to gain or lose either way. This situation does not affect me either way because I am only her sister who is only concerned about her happiness.”
During her emotional 24-minute speech last week, Britney accused her conservators of forcing her to work nonstop, take medication that left her incapacitated, and preventing her from removing the intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) implanted inside her, despite her desire to have another child.
Jamie spoke about how she has been supporting her sister in her own way that outsiders might not be witness to.
“I’ve made a very conscious choice in my life to only participate in her life as her sister, as an aunt to those boys,” Jamie added, referring to Britney’s two sons Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline.
“Maybe I didn’t support her the way the public would like me to — with a hashtag on a public platform — but I can assure you that I’ve supported my sister long before there was a hashtag, and I’ll support her long after that,” Jamie said.
“Not that I owe the public anything,” she added, “because my sister knows I love and support her. That’s the only person I owe anything to.”
Jamie also revealed that she had talked to Britney about her case before and would support the end of the conservatorship, which is held by their father Jamie Spears and the Bessemer Trust Co.
“I’m so proud of her for using her voice. I’m so proud of her for requesting new counsel, like I told her to do many years ago — not on a big public platform but just in a personal conversation between two sisters,” Jamie said. “So I’m very proud that she’s taken that step. If ending the conservatorship ... whatever the hell else she wants to do to be happy. I support that 100%.”
A day earlier, Jamie’s husband, Jamie Watson, defended the Spears family in a statement to the New York Post.
“I can assure you her family loves her and wants the best for her,” Watson said. “I wouldn’t be around people who weren’t. Who wouldn’t want to be in support of Britney?”
— With inputs from Los Angeles Times
