Britney Spears’ little sister, Jamie Lynn, has been hitting the media circuit to promote her new book Things I Should Have Said, in which she spills all sorts of deeply private details about her sister’s “erratic, paranoid and spiraling” behavior over the years.
Britney publicly addressed the project this week, accusing her younger sister of trying to “sell a book at my expense.”
Related: Britney fires back at Jamie Lynn and DAMN
“She never had to work for anything,” Britney said in a scathing social media post. “Everything was always given to her.”
Jamie Lynn fired back with a social media post of her own, writing, “I hate to burst my sister’s bubble but my book is not about her. I can’t help that I was born a Spears, too.”
Meow.
Scroll down for more celebrity tell-alls written by vindictive family members out for blood (and a paycheck)…
Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccione
The pop icon’s gay younger brother’s tell all about his superfamous sibling was panned by critics when it came out in 2008. Ciccione basically spent 350 pages trashing his sister for not doing more for him while ignoring his own glaring shortcomings and bad behavior. Despite an initial printing of 350,000, the memoir went on to sell roughly 35,000 copies before being relegated to bookstore bargain bins.
Lucky Me by Sachi Parker
In 2013, Shirley MacLaine’s estranged daughter decided to get revenge on her mother for cutting her off financially by writing 368 pages about what a terrible, horrible, awful person she is. Upon its publication, Parker sent her mom a copy of the book with a passive-aggressive note saying, “I love you.” MacLaine responded by calling the project “virtually all fiction.”
Through The Storm by Lynne Spears
Before Jamie Lynn threw her sister on the bus, Britney’s own mother wrote about her daughter’s highly publicized breakdown in 2008, sharing all sorts of half truths and private details about Britney’s childhood, her difficult journey from child star to pop princess, her drug and drinking habits, and how fame negatively impacted their family.
My Mother’s Keeper by B.D. Hyman
Bette Davis’s daughter published this nasty tell-all in 1985. In it, she paints the actress out to be a self-centered, emotionally manipulative alcoholic. The book resulted in B.D.’s brother, Michael Merrill, never speaking to her again. After it was published, Davis penned an open letter to her daughter saying, “Your book is a glaring lack of loyalty and thanks for the very privileged life I feel you have been given. If my memory serves me right, I’ve been your keeper all these many years.”
Silent Partner by Dina Matos McGreevey
After her husband, former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, resigned in disgrace when he was caught having an affair with another man, Dina Matos McGreevey penned this bitter memoir in which she expressed her absolute horror at having “allowed a gay man to father my child.” She also called her marriage a “nightmare” and accused her ex-husband of being a liar and a narcissist. A book like this would probably be deemed waaay too homophobic to publish today, but in 2007 it peaked at No. 8 on The New York Times bestsellers list.
Stories from Candyland by Candy Spelling
The tension between Tori Spelling and her mom was only made worse when Candy published this flippant memoir in 2009 detailing her lavish Hollywood lifestyle funded by the inheritance Tori didn’t receive after her father, famed television producer Aaron Spelling, died in 2006.
tjack47
I don’t know exactly how well, Britney, is. I can only assume she has bipolar disorder based on her manic behavior over 13 years ago and reading they’d given her lithium. I don’t know of any other mental illness where anyone would prescribed lithium.
Having bipolar 1 disorder. Having been on lithium, and I just couldn’t take it. Having had experience in how bizarre my behavior was, being involuntarily committed 3 times, furious with my family, law enforcement, friends, psychiatric hospital staff, etc., it just makes sense.
Some of her behavior is questionable since she’s been free of the conservatorship. None of it I’m judging her for, and personally I have no problem with nude or semi-nude photos, but I’m wondering if she’s a bit impulsive? It’s difficult to tell, because I believe much of it is trying to establish herself again. Doing whatever she wants, whenever she wants, so happy to be free to catch up.
I certainly don’t know her or her family. I’m finding it somewhat difficult to judge her family. I know I was estranged from some family over behavior that directly affected them. I could be verbally abusive, talk about them as if they were monsters. It was a caseworker who helped, and my medication regimen finally, that helped me see the humanity on the other side of my behavior.
We can all be total assholes at times. The problem I see is how dementia is also a neurological disease like mental illness, but are we handcuffing, shackling, tackling, pointed or threatening to use tasers, etc. on Meemaw? We are treated like human garbage. It takes time to heal and recover from hurt, pain and the carnage left in one’s wake after this type of behavior.
It’s fairly simple to me. There is disease. Disease causes symptoms. Symptoms lead to behaviors. If the disease isn’t properly diagnosed and treated, there will be symptoms. Symptoms always lead to behaviors. Some of those behaviors just happen to be socially unacceptable or possibly dangerous. Meemaw with dementia is possibly coming out of her house buck ass naked and slapping the shit out of the postman. The family needs support, possibly treatment too, and in my healthcare career as an Alzheimer’s, hospice and psychiatric caregiver, it’s complicated.
Inspector 57
Thank you for sharing that, tjack47. It’s a great explanation and a good reminder for us all.
So glad you’re doing better — and thanks for the caregiving work that you do.
barryaksarben
Bettte’s daughter really was a pos as she lived off her mother for her entire life even getting Bette even got her son work on her later movies and never stopped sending checks so hers was a pretty awful book. Yes Bette was alcholic but many children of alkies had it alot worse
DuMaurier
I don’t think every “tell-all” fits in the “bitchy” category. I remember when “Mommie Dearest” came out, and there was a lot of scandalized indignation, along the lines of, “Even if it’s all true, let the dead rest in peace!” The last time I read an article about it, you could tell the narrative has shifted to what Christina Crawford always said she intended the book to be: an account of child abuse that just happened to be about a famous movie star. Like it or not, it’s been “okay” for a while for people to unload personal experiences that at one time pretty much everyone would’ve said, “Keep it in the family, deal with it privately.”
So I don’t know. As far as the Britney soap opera goes, if I were her sibling or parent I wouldn’t expose all that stuff to the public. But it’s not like she’s been discreet. Every other day it seems like there’s a new, endlessly long Instagram post with her railing obsessively against her horrible family, and she doesn’t seem to think it’s wrong to pull all of us into the drama. I don’t see why her sister should be blasted for giving us her side, assuming anyone’s interested.
Seth
Dina Matos McGreevey may have gone full 7th-grade mean girl but Governor McGreevey was, in no way, the victim of that story. Marrying and having children under false pretense with anyone is a pretty egregious action and is in no way excused. His being gay was never the problem. His allowing that to make him a liar was, and so her wrath is understandable. My sympathies go to their child without a decent role model in sight.
ScottOnEarth
Just because Britney is a superstar doesn’t mean her sister is a bad person for writing a book about her own life. Our childish, celebrity-obsessed society puts people like Britney on a pedestal, somehow pretending she can do no wrong. Also, Christopher Ciccone’s book was not as-described in this article. He wrote about his own life and simply gave multiple, real-life examples of how cold, narcissistic, frugal and unkind his famous sister is. It was a good book.
johncp56
I want to see into the Spelling book, I can not believe her father stiffed her, it was published she got ?800K we all know life in California, rent alone LOL, sad mommy was is so tight, if the case, I do not have kids but would not give them the entitlement thinking they are going to get many $$$ but would not let them flop go homeless healthcare less