Jamie Lynn Spears Recalls Horrific Backlash From 'the Whole World' After She Stepped Back From 'Zoey 101' Due to Teen Pregnancy

Jamie Lynn Spears is looking back on the cruel treatment she received for deciding to take a break from the spotlight after her teen pregnancy.

“That was something I took responsibility for the way that made sense for me,” the now-32-year-old told Hannah Brown on the Wednesday, July 26, episode of the "Better Tomorrow" podcast.

Emphasizing that it was a "personal" decision to remove herself from Hollywood when she got pregnant at 15, the mom-of-two acknowledged: “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 was starring on Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, which ran from 2005-2008, when she got pregnant, having then made the decision to leave the show to focus on her journey to motherhood.

The younger sister of Britney Spears completely stepped back from her life, choosing to start over as a pregnant teen in the “middle of nowhere” in Mississippi. Spears got rid of her cell phone and opted for a “house phone” instead — though she encouraged people to not contact her.

“I was like, ‘No one call me,’ [and] I put myself on a budget,” she remembered. “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.”

Spears — who went on to welcome daughter Maddie, now 15, in June 2008 with ex-boyfriend Casey Aldridge — gushed about her old life in Mississippi, noting how great it was that she finally had the ability to go to a store without worrying someone would recognize her and sneak a photo.

“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," said Spears. "Like, you know what, that doesn’t matter. These are the people that matter."

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Despite stepping away from the spotlight, Spears, who is also mom to daughter Ivey Joan, 5, with husband Jamie Watson, has slowly been making her return with her main role in Sweet Magnolias and upcoming appearance in the film Zoey 102.

Page Six reported the podcast episode.