The British pop singer stated, “It really irritates me when people say you can have everything because, quite frankly, you can’t.” Lily Allen offers an unexpectedly candid opinion regarding the feasibility of women managing parenthood alongside their career aspirations.
This week on the “Radio Times” podcast, the British pop star whose most popular songs were “Smile” and “F*ck You,” claimed that having children “ruined” her career.
Allen stated in the interview, “I never really have a strategy when it comes to my career, but my children did ruin it.” “Although I adore them and they complete me, they ruined my entire pop stardom.” “It really annoys me when people say you can have everything, because, frankly, you can’t,” she continued.
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Allen, a native of London, and her ex-husband Sam Cooper have two kids, Ethel Mary, 12, and Marnie Rose, 11. Since 2020, she and actor David Harbour from “Stranger Things” have been married and have lived mostly in New York.
She is, of course, by no means the first female celebrity to discuss the difficulties of parenting kids while pursuing career goals in show business. After appearing in “Oppenheimer,” which took home seven Academy Awards on Sunday, actress Emily Blunt announced on the “Table for Two” podcast last year that she was ready for a change of pace and would be taking a year off from acting.
“I just feel like there are cornerstones to their day that are so important when they’re little,” Blunt added. She and her husband John Krasinski have two daughters, Hazel, 9, and Violet, 7. And it’s, ‘Are you going to wake me up? Shall we go to school together? Are you going to come get me? When will you get me in bed? And I just have to be there for every one of them—for a long time. I could feel it in my bones.
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Even though Allen has kept a quieter profile since the release of her most recent album, “No Shame,” in 2018, she hasn’t avoided the spotlight entirely. She debuted on the London stage in the play “2:22: A Ghost Story” in 2021, and she received a nomination for an Olivier Award, which is the British version of a Tony. She sang “Fuck You” with Olivia Rodrigo onstage at the Glastonbury Festival in Britain the following year in protest of the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the constitutional right to an abortion.
Notwithstanding her ambivalent perspective, she harbors no remorse regarding her decision to prioritize her family. During her interview with “Radio Times,” she revealed that her choice was significantly impacted by her upbringing, as both her parents—actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen—had a strong focus on their careers.
“During my childhood, my parents were extremely absent, and I feel as though that left me with some extremely painful scars that I do not wish to relive,” she elaborated. “Also, I decided to step back and focus on them, and I’m glad I did so.”