Lily Allen has praised her ex-husband David Harbour for his response to her recent album ‘West End Girl‘.
Allen’s fifth studio album was released last October and was written and recorded in 10 days following the collapse of her marriage to the Stranger Things actor, after he allegedly cheated on her.
Allen previously described the record as “a mixture of fact and fiction” that details the “complexities of relationships and how we all navigate them”, and has said it was inspired by her “deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment” after her divorce. She later stated that she did not view it as a “cruel” album and was not seeking “revenge”.
“It was weird,” Harbour recently said about living through the album’s release cycle. “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.”
“Stories are complex,” he added. “And that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience.”
Now, Allen has responded to his comments in a new interview with The Cut. “I think that was a generous thing for him to say,” she said. “He’s having a real moment of success as well, right? He’s been nominated for an Emmy, and it’s great. We’re all doing our own thing, and we’re all doing what we’re supposed to do. If there’s one thing I know about David Harbour, it’s that he’s an excellent actor.”
Reports of Allen’s separation from Harbour emerged at the start of last year, amid rumours that the Stranger Things star had cheated on her. Later, Allen revealed that she went into a treatment centre to deal with the “emotional turmoil” of the break-up.
Allen and Harbour began dating in 2019 after meeting on the dating app Raya, and tied the knot in an intimate Las Vegas ceremony in 2020.
Elsewhere in the interview, Allen explained why several venues were downsized on her North America tour for ‘West End Girl’, explaining: “The ticket sales weren’t there.”
She has been performing her acclaimed 2025 album in full at the accompanying tour over the last year. The theatrical shows see her appearing on stage alone, singing to backing tracks and not speaking to the crowd.
Earlier this month she kicked off the US leg of the tour with a giant show at Madison Square Garden. The rest of the tour was initially also supposed to take place in several arenas across the country, but in July, she moved several shows to smaller venues and cancelled a planned Montreal date.
