How Lily Allen built a career out of controversy

They are Marianka Swain.

The novelist Margaret Atwood once described divorce as “like an amputation: you survive, but you have less life.”

stranger things actor David Harbor Probably has something to do with his soon-to-be-ex-wife's mood this week Lily Allen Put the knife through her body Brutal confessional revenge album “West End Girls”,This is Full of obscene revelations – So it looks like it's going to be a big hit.

Allen, 40, reveals intimate details about the couple's crumbling marriage, including the messy aftermath of an unwanted open marriage and suspicions of sex addiction (she describes the lyrics as “a mix of fact and fiction”).

Read more: Singer dating again after harsh treatment of famous ex's album

As fans eagerly play detective, matching lyrics to reality — including tracking down the real Madeleine, the “other woman” on the title track — Ellen's comeback album, her first in seven years, is soaring. On its first day alone, it received 3.7 million plays on Spotify.

Ellen has been less candid about how her children, Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 12, from her previous marriage to builder Sam Cooper, and Harbour, 50, feel about the explosive album.

“I don't know if I can answer that,” was all she said at the time. the times Asked her last week if she had heard of it.

People hope her kids will at least be able to jump over the track cat palaceIn it, the singer, struggling in her open marriage (albeit one with strict parameters: be discreet and meet only paying strangers), discovers that her partner has a secret rendezvous where he keeps a bag filled with “sex toys, butt plugs, lube” and a shoebox filled with letters “from sad women.”

The album was the artistic equivalent of a grenade with its pins pulled out, and Allen seemed to welcome the drama.

as she said perfect Magazine: “If what you’re doing isn’t provocative, what’s the point?”

These words are essentially a mission statement from a singer who has always made her fortune by making shocking statements and scandalous behavior to propel her career – her net worth is estimated at £3 million ($6 million).

Allen is, as she puts it, “a well-documented Niebo baby”: Her father is actor Keith Allen, and after their divorce, her mother, Alison, dated comedian Harry Enfield.

“She grew up in a very showbiz household,” said public relations expert Mark Borkoski.

“She's a lot like her father, Keith: He's very, very outspoken, he won't tolerate fools and he won't deal with any jerks.”

Borkowski added that Allen was always “very active – the ultimate show business brat.” She did go through a long feral child phase.

In 2006 she told uncut Magazine: “At 15, I became a drug dealer in Ibiza. I wasn't good at dealing drugs – I was terrible. The golden rule of drug dealing; don't get too enthusiastic about your wares.”

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg for Allen. While promoting her 2006 debut album Okay, stillEllen made headlines for saying she would celebrate being number one by taking cocaine and called Paris Hilton “very untalented”, adding: “If she was rude to me, I would hit her.”

She also called Madonna “overrated” and Victoria Beckham “obsessed with fame” and revealed she once kissed a Stringfellows stripper when she was 15.

Ellen, who was dating Chemical Brothers' Ed Simmons, claimed at the time that she had suffered a miscarriage in 2008, though she later admitted as much in her 2018 memoir my idea is exactly right She had had an abortion. Alan spent three weeks in a monastery suffering from depression.

None of this hurt her music career: quite the opposite. Okay, still Achieved quadruple platinum sales with over 2.5 million copies sold worldwide and also featured as a lead single Smile Went to first place. Effortlessly, the brash, confessional lyrics of her songs fit perfectly with her cheeky party girl persona. Smile It begins “When you first left me/I wanted more/But you were fucking the girl next door.”

Borkovsky noted that Allen was also something of a pioneer in leveraging social media. “She was ahead of her time in amassing a huge following on MySpace.”

She continues to speak candidly and directly to her audience, though now primarily through her podcast Miss me? Since 2024, she has been co-hosting with her friend Miquita Oliver.

“She understands the modern need for raw honesty,” Borkovsky said. “She also has absolute Teflon skin, so she can handle any blowback.”

That's okay, because Ellen shares every dazzling detail of her life. “I've always had pregnancies,” she said on her podcast earlier this year. “Abortions, I've had a few, but then again, I can't remember exactly how many (…) I'd say four or five.”

Before going sober in 2019, Allen battled drug and alcohol addiction. One of her vices was taking the prescription drug Adderall, she recalled recovery In the 2021 podcast, she lost weight while touring in support of Miley Cyrus in 2014.

Her colorful romances include Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, art dealer Jay Joplin (who was separated from his wife before the reported affair) and Oasis rocker Liam Gallagher. Allen wrote in her memoir that in 2009, she and Gallagher got drunk on a plane to Japan and joined the Mile High Club. Gallagher was married to All Saints singer Nicole Appleton at the time.

Furthermore, while Harper's reported infidelities formed the basis of the outrage for Allen's latest album, she admitted in her memoir that she had had sex with a female companion while she was married to Cooper – though she later said The Jonathan Ross Show She didn't think it was “cheating” because the escorts were all women.

In 2018, actress Zoe Kravitz appeared in the American TV show Watch live broadcast. When asked about the story Allen told in her book about her and Kravitz kissing while out at a party, Kravitz gave her own non-consensual version, saying, “If kissing means assault, then yes, she kissed me.”

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A year later, Ellen was asked to respond in an interview with MTV, saying only: “I can't really speak for her. I can only say my version of events, which obviously doesn't match hers.”

Yet Ellen's fans continue to embrace her outrageous behavior, as well as her equally brazen music.

her 2009 album It's not me, it's you Sales exceeded 2 million units in 2014 Hizus Ranked #1 in 2018 no shameDetailing her drug problem and the breakdown of her first marriage, it became her fourth top ten album.

Allen then temporarily retired from music and turned to acting, starring in London's West End plays 2:22 Ghost Stories, pillow man and haidaplus television comedy dreambut she remains the queen of sensational headlines.

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In 2020, she partnered with the company Womanizer to create her own sex toy, a clitoral pump called Liberty, and led Womanizer's #IMasterbate campaign.

In 2024, Ellen started selling photos and videos of her feet on OnlyFans, which also pissed her off. Here's a lucrative side hustle: type She earns an estimated monthly income of around £7,700 ($15,400).

Now Allen is back in the music world and as provocative as ever – if not more.

“If you're successful at something in the first place, you should keep doing it,” Borkovsky said.

“A lot of people are not that strong-willed, but Lily stood her ground.”

Allen's dedication to her infamous, eye-popping brand may help her stand out in a crowded market and hopefully reap big rewards. Here's the frustrating news for Harper: This won't be the last we hear from the controversial Allen.

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