Lily Allen has spoken about how the painful aftermath of her split from her husband David Harbour left her feeling ‘rejected and abandoned’, which has inspired some of the songs on her new album
Lily Allen has opened up about how her split from Stranger Things actor David Harbour inspired her most personal record yet, revealing that her new album, West End Girl, was born out of “deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment”.
The Smile hitmaker, 39, released her long-awaited album yesterday (October 24) via BMG. It is the first music she has put out in seven years, since her 2018 record No Shame.
In that time, Lily stepped away from the spotlight to focus on theatre and acting. She earned critical acclaim for her performances in 2:22 A Ghost Story and The Pillowman, as well as appearing in the film How To Build A Girl and the Sky comedy Dreamland.
She also co-hosts the popular podcast Miss Me? with longtime friend Miquita Oliver, but in the past couple of years most of her emotional energy has gone into processing the breakdown of her marriage to David, which she says left her feeling destabilised and vulnerable.
While speaking to Perfect magazine, Lily looked back on the pain that shaped West End Girl, describing it as an album of “sorrow and pain”.
“I have deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment which I’ve been tussling with for most of my adult life and probably quite a lot of my childhood as well,” she said. “And I was having, like, an extreme reaction to things at the time.”
After confirming that “things” referred to the end of her marriage, she continued: “It’s hard for me to not have my person, you know? And I am quite a codependent person. I find it difficult to lean on the people who are available to me when I’m missing the comfort and stability of what is not available to me.”
The mother-of-two added that she was frustrated by having to “do the work” of healing. “I know that what I have to do is to be able to make myself happy and that is a source of extreme irritation for me. It means doing the f**king work, and I feel like I’ve been doing the work for fucking ages. I’m exhausted by it. And I thought it was done. I thought it was happily ever after, you know?”
Lily and David tied the knot in Las Vegas in 2020 after meeting on the celebrity dating app Raya, but confirmed their separation earlier this year after months of speculation about infidelity.
Lily later admitted she entered treatment to cope with the “emotional turmoil” of the split. Since leaving their Brooklyn townhouse the singer has gotten settled in London, buying an ex-council flat in Notting Hill that she’s been decorating herself.
She previously told The Mirror: “I’ve obviously had quite a hard time and that’s really helped me.” The emotional fallout of the breakup is explored in depth in West End Girl.
Her songs called Ruminating and Madeline deal with themes of jealousy and infidelity, while Relapse explores her struggle to stay sober. The record closes with Just Enough, which is a track about acceptance and moving on.
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