Jamie Lynn Spears Opens Up About ‘Zoey 101’ Exit Amid Teen Pregnancy

Jamie Lynn Spears is getting candid about how she navigated her teen pregnancy.

During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of Hannah Brown‘s Better Tomorrow podcast with SiriusXM, the Sweet Magnolias star, 32, spoke about some of the difficult decisions she had to make when she found herself expecting a baby at 15 — including walking away from her hit Nickelodeon show Zoey 101.

“That was something I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me,” Spears explained of her choice to quit the series, which aired from 2005 to 2008, and focus on her pregnancy. “That doesn’t make sense for everyone else, but it made sense for me and the whole world came down and told me I was the worst human alive for doing so and that every young girl who ever watched my show was going to be ruined because of me and my personal decision.”

Spears not only left her show but Hollywood altogether, packing up and retreating to Mississippi in the “middle of nowhere” to escape the spotlight and live a simpler life.

“I didn’t have a cell phone, I had a house phone. I was like, ‘No one call me,’ [and] I put myself on a budget” she told Brown, 28. “I had a budget for, like, 10 years that I lived very strictly by and I just wanted to be normal and I just really wanted to be away [from the public eye].”

She said she enjoyed the anonymity of small-town life. “I think being in a small town and going into a store [where the clerk] who’s checking you out doesn’t care about who you are, what you’re doing or who’s taking your picture, she’s trying to get home to her kids,” the All That star said.

“Interacting with people like that on a daily basis makes you have a much different outlook whenever a newspaper writes a bad headline about you that’s not true. Like, you know what, that doesn’t matter. These are the people that matter,” Spears explained.

Spears and her ex-boyfriend Casey Aldridge welcomed their daughter Maddie, now 15, in June 2008. She welcomed a second child, daughter Ivey Joan, 5, in 2018 with husband Jamie Watson.

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Spears told Brown she’s fiercely protective of her daughters and doesn’t want them to have to experience the same challenges she did as a teen.

“I look at both my children [and think] at least at that age I was in the business because I did it and I loved it. I was putting myself out there, but my children truly are not,” she explained. “That is what their mom does, so anytime that I feel that I’ve exposed them in any way, you feel tremendous guilt. I try to protect them in every way that I can, but I also try to defend them in every way that I can.”

She said she’s proud to be a role model for Maddie as she journeys through her own teenage years. “I am just so thankful my 15-year-old daughter gets to see her mother working and doing what she loves,” Spears said. “Every time somebody gives me a job, they’re giving my little girl something to look up to. [She] gets to see her mom working and succeeding, when I was told I wasn’t going to.”

Fifteen years later, Spear is getting a second chance at the dream she had to let go of. She’s returning to the halls of Pacific Coast Academy to reprise her iconic role as Zoey Brooks for the Paramount+ film Zoey 102, which premieres on Thursday. The movie sees Zoey attending the wedding of her friends Quinn Pensky (Erin Sanders) and Logan Reese (Matthew Underwood), as seen in a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE.

Spears described the gig as a “pinch-me” moment. “It’s like I have to pinch myself because it’s something we’ve worked on really hard for years to get, being patient to make sure it’s right, putting the right things in place. And then it’s like a dream come true,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “It’s this thing you’ve been talking about and working on and trying to bring to life.”

She added, “The first day I walked on set, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we really did it. We’re here, we’re doing it,’ so it is surreal.”

Spears told ET that taking part in the reunion was especially meaningful because the role was such a significant part of her childhood, adding, “We grew up together.” 

“I was so ingrained in that character, so revisiting her was something I always dreamed of,” she explained. “But I was like, ‘Can that really ever happen? In what world, dude? Who gets to do something like that twice?’ It’s one of those things that I wasn’t sure if it could ever happen, but I always dreamed of being able to do it and see where she is.”