Lily Allen reveals how she and kids are coping with ‘huge changes’ after her split from David Harbour
LILY Allen has opened up on her state of mind and the “huge change” in her family life situation following her split with husband David Harbour.
The popstar candidly told how she had now come out from the other side of a “nervous breakdown” which saw her hospitalised.
Lily, 40, who shares two daughters with first husband Sam Cooper, and endured a bitter split with Stranger Things actor David, 50, last year.
Cheating allegations and a marriage lacking intimacy were allegations levelled at the Netflix actor by Lily, with the former couple starting to negotiate the sale their £6m Brooklyn townhouse.
The marriage breakdown sparked Smile songstress Lily’s first album in seven years.
At the heart of the record is a character called Madeline, who Lily confirmed to the Times is a construct of other people, and the secret relationship she has with a man many are interpreting to be Harbour.
Now she has opened up on the after effects on her Miss Me? podcast.
She said: “I’ve done quite a lot this year.
“I’ve finished an album, I got a boob job, I had a nervous breakdown, I went into hospital for a bit, I came out, I did some podcasting for a while, then I played one of the hardest tracks in theatre and killed myself (in the role of Hedda Gabler) every night for seven weeks.”
She added of teen daughters Ethel, 14, and Marnie, 13: “My kids are f**king mental at the moment.
“They are really developing their personalities. It’s just a lot.
“There’s a lot of questions.”
Tacitly making reference to the life changes prompted by the split she said: “There’s a lot of change in our lives at the moment
“We’ve changed houses, we’ve changed countries, we’ve changed schools, and it’s a lot.”
The Fear hitmaker added to her show: “The last five years, I’ve been a stay-at-home mum.
“And now I’m a single mum that has to work and suddenly has a lot of work opportunities on my plate and I’m having to travel a lot.”
MARRIAGE SPLIT
Lily previously told how she was suicidal after her marriage split and voluntarily opted to go to rehab.
She has previously been open about her recreational use of drugs and alcohol but she opted to quit the substances six years ago.
It led the star to find her marriage split even more challenging as she wasn’t able to use the substances as a way out.
Lily said: “The feelings of despair that I was experiencing were so strong.
“The last time that I felt anything like that, drugs and alcohol were my way out, so it was excruciating to sit with those [feelings] and not to use them.”
Lily said: “I’ve been into those places before against my will and I feel like that’s progress in itself.
“That’s strength. I knew that the things I was feeling were too extreme to be able to manage, and I was like, ‘I need some time away’.”
Lily married David in 2020 – her second husband following her marriage to the father of her children, builder Sam Cooper.
The LDN hitmaker was married to Sam from 2011-2018 although the relationship was understood to have crumbled sometime before they made their break-up official.
TOUGH TIMES
Lily and David split up in December 2024 and it was later reported he’d had a three-year affair.
David had even made a shock “cheating” joke while doing a tour of their New York City home two years prior.
But the split fuelled the Lily’s huge music comeback, with the toxic fallout playing out on her first album in seven years.
The eye-watering details of her open marriage and split from actor David are seemingly laid bare in the 14-song album.
On the album, Lily took aim at David and claimed how he allegedly bedded a woman called “Madeline”.
The track is written as a letter to the woman David had an affair with.
“How long has it been going on? Is it just sex or is there emotion?” Lily sings at one point.
And in the song Tennis, Lily croons: “So I read your text, and now I regret it.
It has since been revealed that “Madeline” is likely based on Natalie Tippett, a single mum aged 34, from New Orleans, who has strongly denied any affair.