Teen actress Jamie Lynn Spears has baby girl

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth to a baby girl Thursday morning at a south Mississippi hospital, according to a person close to the Spears family.

The person confirmed the baby's birth to The Associated Press. The person asked not to be identified because the family had not yet announced the baby's birth.

The 17-year-old was the star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," a sitcom about prep school friends, and is the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears. The Spears family announced in December that Jamie Lynn was pregnant. The father is Casey Aldridge, a pipe-layer from Liberty, Miss. The couple is not married but announced an engagement several months ago.

A message left at the Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center where Spears gave birth to the baby was not immediately returned Thursday and the family could not immediately be reached for comment.

The younger Spears lives near Liberty with Aldridge, 19, and has been seen around the small south Mississippi town often as her pregnancy became more apparent. Her family owns a home across the state line in Kentwood, La.

Spears announced her pregnancy through an article in OK! Magazine and was expected to receive a large payday for exclusive pictures of the newborn.

Nickelodeon issued a statement about the birth on Thursday, saying, "We wish her and her family well." Nickelodeon spokeswoman Marianne Romano said that filming of the fourth and final season of "Zoey 101" was completed last summer before Spears became pregnant.

Spears portrayed Zoey Brooks, a student at Pacific Coast Academy, a campus that until her arrival and that of a handful of other girls had been an exclusive all-boys boarding school. At the end of the series, Zoey gets the boy - longtime crush Chase (Sean Flynn).

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Associated Press Writer Erin Carlson in New York contributed to this report.