Zoey 101, the hit Nickelodeon series starring Jamie Lynn Spears, 27, that aired from January 9, 2005, until May 2, 2008, ended with Chase returning to share a kiss with his unrequited love, Zoey, but failed to let fans know if the couple would eventually end up together.
Yet it wasn’t only onscreen that Zoey 101 had fans wondering. In real life, rumors swirled that the show had been canceled after Spears became pregnant at 16 just before the series ended. In 2016, the actress was featured in Jamie Lynn Spears: When the Lights Go Out, a television documentary in which she discussed the controversy surrounding her pregnancy.
In the film, she says, "When I became pregnant my world came crashing down. I knew I had a lot of young girls who looked up to me, and I felt that responsibility, but at the end of the day, I knew I would have to make a decision as a young girl myself, to do something that I could sleep with at night."
"I knew deep down that I was going to have my little girl, even if I had to raise her on my own, which is what I did," she added.
The controversy was heightened by the fact that the actress was pregnant by her then-boyfriend, Casey Aldridge, who was two years older than Spears. The couple had been dating for two years, but many questioned their age difference. There were even reports that Aldridge could be charged with statutory rape, despite the fact that under California law the crime is only charged as a felony if the two people having sex are at least three years apart in age. The couple eventually broke up in 2010.
On Thursday, the actress, who recently had another baby with husband Jamie Watson, cleared up any confusion in an Instagram post in which she shared a video of the Zoey 101 theme song with the hashtags #itdidNOTendbecauseofpregnancy and #contractwasfinished. The post has been viewed nearly 600,000 times, proving the actress has not been forgotten by her fans.
Spears, who has spent the last few years focused on her country music career, released her first single "How Could I Want More" in 2013. The song debuted at number 29 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs. Spears was also featured on her older sister Britney's album Britney Jean on the song "Chillin' With You".
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Last July, the Zoey 101 star returned to Nickelodeon as a contestant on Double Dare with her daughter Maddie. The pair won $15,000, which they donated to a Louisiana hospital that had treated Maddie after a near-fatal ATV accident.
