Jamie Lynn Spears has addressed persistent rumors that her former Nickelodeon show, "Zoey 101," ended due to her pregnancy at age 16. Spears, now 35, appeared on the "MOMARCHY" podcast Tuesday to discuss misconceptions about her life.
"If we’re talking about a concrete misconception, it would be that everybody thinks that ‘Zoey [101]’ ended because I got pregnant. And that is not true,” Spears said. “I’ve said it probably in every interview I’ve ever done and people still — they don’t understand it.”
Spears noted that her eldest daughter, Maddie, who is now 18, is frequently targeted on TikTok by fans of the show who incorrectly attribute the sitcom's cancellation to her. "Zoey 101" originally aired from 2005 to 2008, running for four seasons.
"[Maddie’s] like, ‘Oh, my top comments are always, ‘You’re the reason Zoey’s over. You’re the reason.’ She’s — and we laugh about them because they’re pretty … you got to laugh at these things because like, it’s pretty funny some of the things they say to her, but it’s just not the truth,” Spears told podcast hosts Tanya Nathan and Sarah Andrews.
According to Spears, the show had completed filming its series finale by the time she became pregnant with Maddie and her then-boyfriend Casey Aldridge. However, the final season had not yet aired on television.
"That’s how it is in entertainment. A lot of people who aren’t in the business don’t understand,” she explained. “You shoot it, and it comes out, like, maybe the next year or something. So, I think that’s where people were confused, but we were wrapped. We were always wrapped, and there was never going to be another season.”
Spears previously addressed these rumors in January 2019 via an Instagram post celebrating the show's 14th anniversary. She wrote in the caption, “Are you ready? 14 years later…still a jam #itdidNOTendbecauseofpregnancy #contractwasfinished.” When a fan commented asking if she waited to reveal the truth, Spears replied, “Nope. I went home to finish high school and was going to pursue movies.”
Spears has spoken about her teenage pregnancy, describing it as "a little bit of my saving grace because it gave me a direction." She split from Aldridge in late 2009, and they briefly reconciled before breaking up permanently in February 2010. Spears later married Jamie Watson in 2014, and they welcomed their daughter, Ivey, in 2018.