Jamie Lynn Spears Weighs In on Britney Spears' Mental Health

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 21 July 2020

Time after time, Jamie Lynn Spears has Britney's back. We saw it when she shaded Justin Timberlake on Instagram last year (my sister also holds a grudge against the man who broke my heart 15 years ago), and it was clear today when Jamie defended her older sister on Instagram. Jamie posted a tweet from Halsey which noted, "A manic episode isn't a joke," and someone commented to Jamie, "How about your sisters [sic] OBVIOUS mental illness? Why don't you speak on that?"

Jamie Lynn was having none of it. "You have no right to assume anything about my sister," she wrote back, "and I have NO right to speak about HER health and personal matters. She is a strong, badass, unstoppable woman, and that is the only thing that is OBVIOUS."

Instagram account @CommentsByCelebs captured the exchange:

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Although fans have speculated about Britney's mental health in the run-up to her July court appearance in regard to her conservatorship, according to Cosmo, Britney herself hasn't spoken out—and, as Jamie notes, Britney is the only person who has the right to. Since being committed to a psychiatric ward in 2008, Britney has been under the conservatorship of her father—the conservatorship, initially temporary, is now permanent—meaning he is in charge of her assets.

Britney and Jamie are close, with Jamie revealing in May that Britney had chosen to return home to Louisiana during the coronavirus pandemic to spend time with their family. “Britney was like, “I want to come home, I don’t want to be by myself [in LA] because all of her family’s pretty much here. So she was able to come home for almost two weeks or so," Jamie told Entertainment Tonight.

Last April, Jamie was also forced to defend her sister on Instagram when Britney checked into a mental health facility. "10 years ago, who was there?? I have been here long before anyone else, and I’ll be here long after. I love my sister with everything I have. So, anyone or anything that speaks to the contrary can GTFOH with all the comments about what you don’t understand," Jamie wrote.

Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013 and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. Working closely with Marie Claire's exceptional editorial, audience, commercial, and e-commerce teams, Jenny oversees the brand's digital arm, with an emphasis on driving readership. When she isn't editing or knee-deep in Google Analytics, you can find Jenny writing about television, celebrities, her lifelong hate of umbrellas, or (most likely) her dog, Captain. In her spare time, she writes fiction: her first novel, the thriller EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD, was published with Minotaur Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US) in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia , which she was diagnosed with when she was nine.