Lily Allen says that she’s “in a stronger place” after leaving a multi-week treatment program.
“I just feel very grateful to have been given the time and the space that I needed.” Allen, 39, said on the Thursday, February 13, episode of her “Miss Me?” podcast, returning from an on-air hiatus. “I went into a sort of treatment center for a few weeks, which was great. I did a lot of group therapy and some individual therapy and I needed some time and space away from everything.”
According to Allen, she did a lot of work on her “inner child.”
“It was not easy — by any stretch,” she said on the BBC podcast. “It’s a lifelong journey of healing. It’s not a quick fix, but I’ve started meditating. I meditate two or three times a day [and] that’s really helping me.”
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Allen did not reveal why she sought treatment but said she was inspired by her daughters. (The “Smile” singer shares Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 12, with ex-husband Sam Cooper.)
“I absolutely adore my children and I’m in a situation now where I really have to be my strongest self for them,” Allen explained. “I felt like it was getting harder and harder for me to be able to show up for them in the way that they need me to.”
She added, “It was a really big decision to have to leave them for a few weeks to go and focus on myself, but ultimately it was for them. Yes, it’s for me, but it’s for them so that I can get us through this bit. I needed some help to be able to do that.”
Allen said it is her job as a parent to make her children “feel safe and secure” and not the other way around.
“None of this is their fault. … I just don’t think I was able to do that because of the sort of emotional turmoil that I was in at the time,” Allen said. “But I do feel like I am now. I’m not saying I’m 100 percent there and I’m not saying that I’m getting it 100 percent right or ever will, but I’m definitely in a stronger place.”
Allen previously told The Times of London that her daughters “kind of monitor me” with her ongoing sobriety journey.
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“Ethel sometimes will be like, ‘Aren’t you going to one of your meetings?” Allen told the British newspaper in November 2024. “[I’ll say,] ‘I did one online this morning’ [and she responds,] ‘Are you sure?’ They know that it takes work and that it’s something that I have to prioritize.”
Allen has been sober for more than five years, but she didn’t specify whether that contributed to her decision to seek treatment. Last month, she said she wasn’t in “a good place” but denied “vicious rumors” she was going to rehab.
“I know I’ve been talking about it for months, but I’ve been spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and it’s got out of control,” she said on a January episode of her podcast. “I went to see something at the theater the other night with my [friends] Carlo and Claire, and I had to leave at halftime. I just can’t concentrate on anything except the pain that I’m going through. It’s really, really hard.”
Allen has been married to David Harbour since 2020. Last year, she opened up about how her sobriety has affected their relationship.
“We don’t really talk about it,” she told The Times in November 2024. “I don’t think I’d ever had sex with anybody not drunk before I got together with him. So that was different for sure.”
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