David Harbour finally responds to Lily Allen’s ‘weird’ divorce album

David Harbour has broken his silence on his ex-wife Lily Allen’s album for the first time, stating that “stories are complex”.

The Stranger Things star, who was married to Allen for four years, found himself the centre of controversy after she released her most recent album, West End Girl, which painted an unflattering picture of an open relationship gone wrong.

Speaking to Variety, Harbour described the experience as “weird”, saying: “Stories are complex, and that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience.”

For clarity, he added: “It wasn’t my experience.”

In the 2025 album, Allen recounted the breakdown of her marriage to Harbour, saying after its release that she had “wanted to die” during the split, and had had to check herself into a trauma clinic.

Speaking to Vogue in October last year, she said the songs were “inspired by what went on in the relationship”, but added: “There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel.”

Harbour, 51, has chosen to maintain his silence regarding details shared by Allen in her songs, including that she found sex toys hidden in a carrier bag from a chemist in the marital bedroom.

Discussing the claims of extramarital activity and emotional manipulation detailed in the album, the actor said: “It was weird. I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that.

“I can’t really say that much more because it’s my private life. In spite of the fact that a lot of people don’t allow me a private life – I value it. And I also value the lives of the people that I interact with privately. I just won’t speak about that.”

Speaking last year, Allen insisted there were “a lot of good things” about her relationship with Harbour, and said Ethel and Marnie, her daughters from her first marriage, “had an amazing experience living in America for five years”.

“I have a lot of compassion for my ex-husband. I think we all suffer,” she added.

In the title track of the album, the singer discusses a phone call between a husband and wife in which he is telling her, from the other side of the Atlantic, that he wants to open up their marriage while she is working in London.

In August 2021, almost a year after the pair married, Allen made her critically acclaimed West End debut in the supernatural thriller 2:22 A Ghost Story, in which she played the lead role.

She was nominated for an Olivier award for her star turn in the play, but implied in her album that this was when the pair’s pledge to be monogamous was flipped.

Elsewhere in his interview, Harbour admitted that he did not know “how to navigate this weird media world” and discussed the media reports of a highly publicised incident late last year, where he stole a fan’s hat at a California bar.

He explained: “I had a breakdown. I do suffer from some confusing stuff – it’s confusing as hell.

“I think a lot of people have a friend or a brother or a coworker that deals with mental health stuff, and they’re probably pretty confused when that person gets depressed or gets manic or has an episode.”

The said that his “gifts” were “linked” with mental illness, stating: “Under times of extreme stress, that can cause somewhat erratic behaviour, and it’s embarrassing, and I’m ashamed of it.

“It’s not something I choose, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I do feel like, for some of us, our gifts are inextricably linked with our illnesses.

“To have a nervous system that reacts to the world in a too-delicate way can allow me to have that moment that I love on the swings with Jason [Bateman, in their recent HBO Max show DTF St Louis]. But it can also force me, in moments of extreme stress, to act a little weird.”

The actor stars opposite Bateman in DTF St Louis, a dark comedy miniseries released in March about three middle-aged individuals in a love triangle.

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