Lily Allen intends to stay in New York, despite split from Stranger Things star David Harbour
Lily Allen believes she will continue living in New York with her two daughters, despite the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things star David Harbour.
Lily Allen is determined to stay living in America, despite the breakdown of her marriage to David Harbour, because her "recovery is in New York".
The 40-year-old singer noted it was a "big commitment" when she relocated to The Big Apple with daughters Ethel, 13, and 12-year-old Marnie - who she has with first husband Sam Cooper - to make a life with the Stranger Things actor, but although she isn't sure what her future is Stateside, Lily would like to remain in the city because it's the place where she has been able to get clean and reinvent herself.
In an interview with The Sunday Times Culture magazine, she said: “I did a play in Bath this summer [Hedda] and didn’t go to a meeting for weeks. My recovery is in New York and my health is a huge priority, but it is hard work.
Lily goes to “lots of different types of therapy”, as well as NA (Narcotics Anonymous) and AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings.
She said: “I keep myself in good shape."
And the LDN hitmaker appreciates the anonymity she has in the US compared to her native England where she has to navigate the "tabloid version" of herself.
She said: “When I walk into a room in this country, I feel I am fighting against a tabloid version of myself — I want to prove I am not that person they read about.
"I don’t feel judged in America the way I do here. It is residual trauma from being followed around by 50 guys with long-lens cameras when I was 21, and then the words that came with the photos the next day.”
Despite her sadness over the end of her marriage to Harbour, 50, Lily believes she will be "OK".
She said: “I’m financially OK. I have a roof over my head and food in the fridge and my kids are doing well and those markers are huge.”
Lily had put her music career on hold in recent years to focus on acting and podcasting, and her daughters were stunned to see her perform for the first time at Glastonbury 2022 with Olivia Rodrigo.
Allen - who has just released her fifth studio album West End Girl, which is her first new music for seven years - recalled: “It’s been years since I put out an album; they’ve never really seen me on stage.
"Marnie thought that I was going to be a backing singer; their minds were blown. People went ballistic… Marnie said, ‘So, were you popular then?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I was quite - back in my day.’ But we’d been living in a bubble in Brooklyn.”
