Is it finally time to face the music? Jamie Lynn Spears has reportedly declined to set out on a cross-country book tour to promote her upcoming memoir, Things I Should Have Said.
Multiple sources with knowledge of the decision said Spears hand-waved away the idea of a whirlwind tour because she’s uninterested in profiting off the book, which she wrote for cathartic purposes. Instead, the sources said, Spears would rather move on and spend the time with her kids.
The younger Spears’ choice to forgo a tour was first reported by TMZ on Monday, barely a day after she appeared to extend an olive branch to her pop star sister over social media, begging to pull their “embarrassing” feud offline and out of the public eye.
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“Britney—Just call me,” the 30-year-old Zoey 101 star wrote in an extended plea shared to her Instagram Story, “I have attempted many times to speak to you directly and handle this privately like sisters should, but you still choose to do everything on a public platform.
“In the meantime, please stop continuing the narrative that I haven’t been there for you or that I’m making things up. I’m happy to share how many times I’ve reached out to you, supported you and tried to help you.
“This is embarrassing and has to stop,” Jamie Lynn concluded, tagging her sister. “love you.”
The younger Spears’ public entreaty comes following her Wednesday sit-down on Good Morning America, which sparked a furious back-and-forth between the sisters over Jamie Lynn’s role in Britney’s 13-year conservatorship.
Jamie Lynn had appeared on the morning talk show to promote Things I Should Have Said—a title swiftly announced in October after backlash over the previous working title, I Must Confess, prompted her team to hustle back to the drawing board.
A tearful Jamie Lynn explained on GMA that she had “always been my sister’s biggest supporter” and claimed that she “went out of my way” to help Britney win the battle over her conservatorship, which ended with the singer’s release in November.
Set free from an ordeal she compared in court to human trafficking, Britney has taken her relatives to task over the conservatorship, declaring she’d like to sue her family for benefiting from the “abusive” situation. Jamie Lynn, who in 2018 filed paperwork seeking to add herself as a trustee of her sister’s $60 million estate (but later decided against the move), told GMA that she hadn’t understood how the conservatorship had been hurting Britney.
Britney Spears at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Beverly Hills on April12, 2018.
Mario Anzuoni/ReutersJamie Lynn also claimed not to know how their rift—colored previously by Britney unfollowing her on Instagram earlier this month—came to be.
But in speaking to ABC News the same day, the former Nickelodeon star described her sister as “erratic, paranoid, and spiraling,” alleging in the interview that Britney once brandished a knife at her in a locked room. “I think everyone is allowed to say their truth,” she explained at the start of the interview.
After initially “rolling her eyes” at the GMA interview, Britney changed tack and furiously accused her younger sister of trying to “sell a book at my expense.” In a Thursday statement posted to Twitter, the pop star excoriated Jamie Lynn as a “scum person,” writing, “My sister was the baby. She never had to work for anything. Everything was always given to her!!! Hope your book does well, Jamie Lynn !!!!”
Britney went on to say that her family “ruined my dreams 100 billion percent” and that they “try to make me look like the crazy one.”
On Friday, Jamie Lynn denounced Britney’s claims, saying they were “absolutely not the truth.” She seemed to allude to conversations happening behind the scenes, writing that texts exchanged in private weren’t matching up to what was being posted on social media. “I hate to burst my sister’s bubble, but my book is not about her,” Jamie Lynn continued. “... There are no sides, and I don’t want drama, but I’m speaking my truth to heal my traumas, so I can close this chapter and move forward, and I wish my sister could do the same.”
Britney returned her sister’s serve on Saturday with a noticeably softer tone. “I said some harsh things because you obviously hurt me by the things you are making up about me,” she wrote. The singer ended her extended, emoji-laden open letter to Jamie Lynn with a reminder to “just know I love you.”
According to TMZ, “a portion” of the profit from Things I Should Have Said will go to a number of unnamed charities.
After her plans last October to donate her memoir’s profits to a specific mental health nonprofit were scuttled over the book’s controversy, however, Jamie Lynn’s camp is choosing to remain tight-lipped about which charities would be receiving the funds this time around.
Jamie Lynn will also walk away with some of the proceeds, the outlet’s sources added, though they continued to insist the money was not a motivating factor.
