Jamie Lynn Spears has sensationally quit ITV's I'm A Celeb after struggling with her time in the jungle. She is the second star to quit the show, following Grace Dent's departure last week.
A show spokesperson said: "Jamie Lynn Spears has left I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! on medical grounds. She's been a fantastic campmate who has triumphed at trials and bonded well with her fellow celebrities."
Like her big sister Britney Spears, Jamie Lynn has struggled with crippling mental health issues throughout her life.
The singer and actress has battled depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and, at her lowest point, would only leave the house to take her eldest child to school. In her 2022 memoir, Things I Should Have Said , the star opened up about her unstable childhood home and parents' divorce.
Jamie Lynn said her dad was an alcoholic and had a bad temper, which created 'anxiety and unpredictability' in the family. Away from home, she focused on acting and pursued a career, starring in Zoey 101, though it was short-lived as she fell pregnant at the age of 16 and decided to leave Hollywood for Mississippi to raise her daughter, Maddie.
Motherhood forced Jamie Lynn to quickly grow up and she split from her baby's father, childhood sweetheart Casey Aldridge, who she claims was unfaithful and struggled with substance abuse. On I'm A Celeb, the star tearfully spoke about her decision to 'keep the baby' in a conversation with campmate Fred Sirieix. "The whole world was like, 'You're a s**t, you're horrible your life is over'," she said.
"I had to go hide away for a long time because they [the press] were relentless. I moved to Mississippi and literally hid. Put a gate around me. I had 20 paparazzi on me every day. It was horrible. I hated it so much. I just wanted to be normal. I wanted my baby to be normal. Everybody told me I was going to be a horrible mum. So I was like I've got to raise this baby by myself and I did."
Then in 2013 - after years of suppressing her emotions and suffering with panic attacks - she reached out for professional help and was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and OCD. "The anxiety was to the point where I couldn't function," she told People in 2022. She took medication and attended therapy to help cope with her mental health illnesses, and is in a much better place today. "For the first time in my life, I feel OK," she said.
In 2014, Jamie Lynn married businessman Jamie Watson and they welcomed daughter Ivey Joan four years later. In 2017, her life was rocked when her eldest daughter Maddie nearly died in an ATV accident, but thankfully made a full recovery. Most famously, Jamie Lynn's rocky relationship with her older sister Britney, now 41, has played a part in her mental health journey.
Britney was held in a strict conservatorship for years by their father and she once branded Jamie a "total b****" for not helping her more. In her recent memoir, The Woman In Me, the singer said she reached out for help when put in a rehab centre for months against her will, but claims Jamie Lynn told her to "stop fighting it". "I didn't understand how Jamie Lynn and our father had developed such a good relationship," wrote Britney. "She knew I was reaching out to her for help and that she was dogging me. I felt like she should have taken my side."
The sisters' childhood relationship was rocky from the off, with Britney saying her younger sibling "ruled the roost" and received preferential treatment from milkshakes to TV choices. "It felt like I was a ghost child. I can remember walking into the room and feeling like no one even saw me," she wrote. For Jamie Lynn, growing up in the Hit Me Baby One More Time singer's shadow was tough. "Sometimes I feel like I don't really have anything for myself," she wept on US TV. "I'm extremely proud of my sister but also have my own identity."
In Jamie Lynn's book, she claimed that Britney once locked the family in a room with a knife, something her popstar sister denies. "As I was fighting the conservatorship and receiving a lot of press attention, she was writing a book capitalising on it. She rushed out salacious stories about me, many of them hurtful and outrageous," said Britney in her memoir.
"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 I've supported my sister long before there was a hashtag," Jamie hit back at disgruntled Britney fans. "And I'll support her long after." The star also appeared to confirm an article claiming she was the only family member not on Britney's payroll and revealed she had tried to "set up ways" to end Britney's conservatorship.
Britney is hopeful for a different relationship with Jamie Lynn - and her baby sister seems open to it. "She will always be my sister, and I love her and her beautiful family," said Britney. "I support my sister," agreed Jamie Lynn. "I love my sister. Always have, always will."