Lily Allen says her brutal new album, which accuses her ex-husband and star of Stranger Things of being a sex addict and a serial cheater, is not about “revenge.”
Allen said she wrote the album while she was still going through the breakup with David Harbour, who also had roles in Hellboy, The Newsroom, and Brokeback Mountain.
Allen’s first album in seven years, West End Girl, takes the listener inside her former partner’s bedroom, where she claims to have found a plethora of sex paraphernalia hidden in a plastic bag.
Duane Reade bag with the handles tied
Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside
Hundreds of Trojans, you’re so f---ing broken
How’d I get caught up in your double life?
Allen says she had no idea what had been going on in her husband’s apartment, for which she also had a key. “I always thought it was a dojo,” she sings in the track called “P---y Palace.”
“So am I looking at a sex addict?” she asks.
While most listeners would assume Allen released the tracks to get back at Harbour, Allen told Interview magazine in an article published on Tuesday that she didn’t intend for the album to be a “revenge tour.”
“I wrote this record in 10 days in December, and I feel very differently about the whole situation now,” She said. “At the time, I was really trying to process things, and that’s great in terms of the album, but I don’t feel confused or angry now. I don’t need revenge.”
“It’s not a cruel album. I don’t feel like I’m being mean. It was just the feelings I was processing at the time,” Allen said, while referring to tracks “Nonmonogamummy” and “Sleepwalking.”
Allen and Harbour married in 2020 but reportedly split in 2024 amid rumors that Harbour was cheating on Allen. Neither party has confirmed the status of their marriage, but Allen referred to Harbour as her ex-husband in an interview with British Vogue on Oct. 17.
Allen has always been candid about her relationships in her music, but critics and fans have been shocked by the honesty in West End Girl. In “Madeline," Allen admits she and Harbour had an open marriage but claims Harbour broke the rules by having sex with someone they knew.
Natalie Tippett, a costume designer on the 2023 film We Have a Ghost, which starred Harbour, told The Mail on Sunday that “Madeline” was about her. Allen has not responded to the interview but told The Times that Madeline was “a fictional character.”
Harbour, who is about to go on the press tour for the final season of Stranger Things, has not commented on the allegations publicly. In April, he told GQ Hype that he refused to respond to rumors about his personal life.
