Lily Allen: ‘Having Kids Ruined My Music Career!’

Lily Allen is convinced having children killed her music career.

The ‘Smile’ singer, 38, has daughters Ethel, 12, and Marnie, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper, 46, to whom she was married from 2011 to 2018, and has now opened up about how – even though she loves the girls – she believes they ruined her pop stardom.

She laughed as she told the ‘Radio Times Podcast’: “My children ruined my career.

“I mean, I love them, and they complete me, but in terms of, like, you know, pop stardom, totally ruined it.”

She also said she hated people using the phrase that mums can “have it all” when it comes to juggling a career with family.

Lily added: “It really annoys me when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.

“Some people choose their career over their children, and that’s their prerogative.

“But, you know, my parents were quite absent when I was a kid, and I feel like that really left some, like, nasty scars that I’m not willing to, you know, repeat on mine.

“And so I chose stepping back and concentrating on them, and I’m glad that I have done that because I think they’re pretty well-rounded people.”

Lily – who married ‘Stranger Things’ actor David Harbour, 48, in 2020 – rose to music stardom aged 21 when she released her hit single ‘Smile’.

She went on to put out the two multi-platinum-selling albums, 2006’s ‘Alright, Still’ and ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ three years later – before she first became a mother in 2011.

Lily, who has had a famously turbulent relationship with her 70-year-old ‘Trainspotting’ actor dad Keith Allen – had her second child in 2013.

Despite her admission motherhood wrecked her music career, Lily went on to release two more records – ‘Sheezus’ in 2014 and ‘No Shame’ four years later.

However, neither album was a commercial success.

Lily said in 2019 she was working on her fifth album, but has instead shifted her focus to acting.

She has starred in two West End plays – 2021’s hit ‘2:22 A Ghost Story’ and last year’s ‘The Pillowman’, as well as taking roles in the 2019 film ‘How to Build a Girl’ and 2023’s ‘Dreamland’ TV show.