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Jamie Lynn Spears reflects on Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake: 'I remember him fondly'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 1/18/22

Jamie Lynn Spears is celebrating the release of her memoir, Things I Should Have Said, Tuesday (Jan. 18).

Simultaneously, the first of Spears's two-part interview on Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast dropped, and during the hour-long conversation, Spears was asked about a description of Justin Timberlake in her book as "one of the first healthy male father figures" in her life.

"Maybe I have some weird perception of it, but that was a really maybe good time in perhaps all of our lives, so perhaps he was in that," Jamie Lynn, 30, explained to Cooper. "I remember him fondly because that was probably one of the best times in the whole family's life. You know, things were good. We were experiencing the good side of things."

"He was pretty thoughtful," she continued. "I loved acting and stuff like that, and I remember for Christmas, he got really thoughtful gifts. I don't know. I just felt like—and he was funny. He was really funny. And two, you have to remember, I grew up around The Mickey Mouse Club, and so I loved all those people because I just felt insulated by them."

Timberlake, of course, dated Jamie Lynn's older sister Britney Spears, 40, for roughly three years before their extremely messy and publicized split in 2002.

Timberlake's treatment of Spears in the aftermath of their breakup was touched on in last February's documentary The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears, which not only propelled the Grammy winner's efforts to end her conservatorship, but prompted an apology from Timberlake:

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A post shared by Justin Timberlake (@justintimberlake)

Cooper asked Spears how she experienced the breakup.

"I was so sad," she said. "I don't really know why I was so sad, but I was because I think everybody thought it was forever. But I was so sad, first off, because my sister was so sad. That also, too, was the first time that I saw maybe I didn't know everything about their relationship. Perhaps they were protecting me, and obviously, why would they talk to me about anything?"

"It was really sad, though, seeing my sister be so heartbroken," she continued. "And also being like, it's hard because I also still want y'all to be together, but she's obviously heartbroken."

When asked why Britney and Timberlake broke up, Jamie Lynn defended her big sister:

"I truly do not know, but I just think about it this [way]. Imagine you're in high school, except you've got all the money and fame in the world. ... If you talk to another girl, text another girl, could you imagine if you were criminalized for that whole thing? Like, 'Well, no, first off, I'm young, so it's what every other kid my age is doing. Why in the world am I being held to a different standard?'

"Looking back on it with that perspective, and seeing how heartbreaking it must have been for my sister when 'Cry Me a River' came out—I mean, don't get me wrong, that's a way to launch your solo career, though! Hey, that's a way to do it. But I felt really sad. My sister, she wrote that song 'Everytime,' and she's obviously beyond brilliant when it comes to anything creative. She picked that song out on the piano, and she wrote it, and it still makes me cry because I think about how heartbroken she was."

This Call Her Daddy episode arrives after a week of online feuding between Britney and Jamie Lynn, sparked by Jamie Lynn's interview with ABC News correspondent Juju Chang as well as details included in her memoir. Britney went so far as accusing Jamie Lynn as trying to "sell a book at my expense" and having "stooped to a whole new level of LOW."

Over the weekend, though, it appeared as if Britney is willing to put it all behind them. See her latest statement below.