Lily Allen West End Girl: A look at singer's marriage to David Harbour, her exes and children as she releases new album
Lily Allen has announced her first new album in seven years, West End Girl, which is said to be inspired by her relationship with ex-husband David Harbour, and the subsequent breakdown of their marriage.
The album was released today (Friday October 24) and features 14 new songs, written and recorded over a 10-day period in Los Angeles in December 2024.
The songs are said to be inspired by 40-year-old Allen’s move to New York, something which she did during her relationship with American Stranger Things actor David Harbour, aged 50.
Speaking about the album, Allen admitted to being “nervous”. “The record is vulnerable in a way that my music perhaps hasn’t been before – certainly not over the course of a whole album,” she said.
“I’ve tried to document my life in a new city and the events that led me to where I am in my life now. At the same time, I’ve used shared experiences as the basis for songs which try to delve into why we humans behave as we do, so the record is a mixture of fact and fiction which I hope serves as a reminder of how stoic yet also how frail we humans can be.
“In that respect I think it’s very much an album about the complexities of relationships and how we all navigate them. It’s a story.”
As the album drops, we take a look back at Allen’s marriage to Harbour, her exes and her children.
What happened between Lily Allen and David Harbour?
Lily Allen married Stranger Things actor David Harbour, who is ten years her senior, in 2020. The pair had met on celebrity dating app Raya, and had spent the Covid lockdown together before saying ‘I do’.
Rumours that the pair had split began in autumn last year, however, when fans noticed Allen had unfollowed her ex on Instagram. In December, Allen was spotted back on Raya.
It was said that the pair have effectively been living separate lives for months, but things came to a head when Allen discovered that Harbour had reactivated his own account on Raya. By January, it was reported that Allen had checked into her trauma centre after the break-up.
Then, in March, it was reported that Harbour had been having a three-year-long affair with a colleague behind his now ex-wife’s back, who was said to be in “agony” over the revelation.
Allen has since said she felt "humiliation and shame" with dating after the split. She told Perfect magazine: "The dating scene is much harder as a 40-year-old woman with two teenage children than it is for a 34-year-old woman. It’s bitterly disappointing.”
She admitted her break-up from David is "really sad", and she finds it hard not being with her "person". She said: "I don’t know what I can say. Two people who were once together are not together. And that’s really sad."It’s hard. It’s hard for me to not have my person, you know? And I am quite a codependent person.
“And 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."
She also said she continues to feel “compassion” for her ex. She told Vogue magazine: “There were lots of good things. My kids had an amazing experience living in America for five years, and I have a lot of compassion for my ex-husband. I think we all suffer.”
Who was Lily Allen married to previously?
Allen was married to builder Sam Cooper between 2011 and 2018. Their marriage ended after seven years because, according to Allen, his desire for a stable home life conflicted with her ambition to continue a global career. He went on to marry India Windsor-Clive in 2021, and the pair welcomed a child in 2022.
Who else has Lily Allen dated?
Allen is said to have dated many people including Jay Jopling, Seb Chew, Ed Simons, Rupert Grint, Liam Gallagher, Zayn Malik, and Meridian Dan.
Who are Lily Allen’s children?
Allen shares two children with her first husband Cooper. They have two daughters; Ethel, born in 2011 and now aged 14, and Marnie, born in 2013, and now 12.
Allen and Cooper also lost a child in 2010. Speaking about her first child’s stillbirth on Woman's Hour, Allen previously said: "The hardest thing about that was losing a child, but there were complications with the actual delivery. He was so small he actually got stuck halfway in and halfway out, so to speak, during the delivery. I went into trauma and I don't think I'll ever really recover from that."