Jamie Lynn Spears Opens Up About Leaving Hollywood When She Got Pregnant at 16: 'I Was Told My Life Was Over’ (Exclusive)

During her pregnancy, the actress moved to the "middle of nowhere” in Mississippi to create a "good, stable" life for her daughter

NEED TO KNOW

• Jamie Lynn Spears reflects on becoming a teen mom at 16 during her Zoey 101 fame and facing harsh tabloid scrutiny
• She moved to Mississippi to raise her daughter Maddie in a stable environment and later returned to Louisiana
• Jamie Lynn clarifies her pregnancy did not end Zoey 101 and shares her pride as Maddie prepares for college

Jamie Lynn Spears is opening up about her experience as a teen mom.

In 2007, the actress, now 35, was 16 and still at the height of her Zoey 101 fame when she became pregnant while dating her then-boyfriend Casey Aldridge.

“I was called the biggest letdown in the world,” she recalls of the intense tabloid coverage in this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. “I was told my life was over. It was really, really tough not to believe those things.”

Determined to give her daughter Maddie a healthy environment, Jamie Lynn — the younger sister of Britney Spears — moved away from Hollywood to “the middle of nowhere” in Mississippi.

“It really was just me and her,” says Jamie Lynn, who eventually split from Aldridge and moved back to Louisiana, where she grew up. “I had to be like, ‘Look, this little girl needs you. You better figure it out.' I wanted to create a good, stable life for my daughter.”

As Maddie grew up, Jamie Lynn says she "wanted her to have a mom she could be proud of."

"I wanted to make sure [she knew] that it wasn't her fault that she got a mom who was 16 and pregnant," she says. "So, I wanted to make sure I did everything right. I think I was a bit of a helicopter parent."

Looking back, “she was definitely strict but with good reason. She just wants me to be safe,” says Maddie, 18. “We just had fun together because she did have me so young.”

Despite growing up in a famous family, Maddie says Jamie Lynn did a "really good job of giving me a normal childhood."

"I never felt different," she says, as Jamie Lynn adds, "She was born with everyone knowing who her family is, so there wasn't anything odd about it because it's pretty much all she's ever known."

Still, Jamie Lynn says their unique family story brought about some funny situations, like the time when Maddie thought "all pop stars were her aunt."

"She was like, 'Aunt Gaga! Aunt RiRi!'" she says. "I was like, 'No, no, no, no. That's not how this works.' I don't even think you ever met those people. You just assumed that they were all your aunts."

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Maddie remembers Rihanna once passed her in a hallway backstage at an event and thought to herself, "Why didn't she talk to me? That's my aunt!"

"I'm sure she was offended with every pop star not stopping by to see their niece," Jamie Lynn says. "I'm like, 'You don't know those people!'"

Maddie says a common misconception about her family is that Jamie Lynn's pregnancy was to blame for Zoey 101's end.

"My TikTok is all like, 'You're the reason Zoey 101 is over. I can't believe you made my show end,'" Maddie says. "I'm not the one that ended Zoey 101, I promise."

Jamie Lynn makes clear that she got pregnant months after the series had already wrapped. "I'll repeat it until I'm blue in the face: We were wrapped!" she says. "The contract ended Zoey."

Now, Jamie Lynn — who married businessman Jamie Watson in 2014 and had a second daughter, Ivey, 8, four years later — is living a very different life than the one people predicted for her when she got pregnant. She's still acting (season 5 of her Netflix show Sweet Magnolias is currently streaming), and about to send Maddie off to college in August.

“I'm so proud of her and everything she's done, but I also cry in the car because I'm not going to have my baby home every day,” says Jamie Lynn, adding, “She's always going to be my baby.” 

For more from Jamie Lynn Spears and her daughter Maddie, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE on newsstands everywhere Friday.

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