Cliff Notes – David Harbour reveals ‘pain and slip-ups’ in life before Lily Allen’s cheating allegations
- David Harbour acknowledged that his life experiences, including mistakes and pain, are integral to personal growth, reflecting on his journey ahead of Lily Allen’s album release.
- Lily Allen’s album, West End Girl, contains allegations of Harbour’s infidelity and emotional manipulation, suggesting a breach of their open relationship agreement.
- The album has garnered critical acclaim, with listeners revisiting past moments in the couple’s relationship that now appear questionable, amidst ongoing discussions about their divorce.
David Harbour reveals ‘pain and slip-ups’ in life before Lily Allen’s cheating allegations
David Harbour and Lily Allen’s marriage has been exposed by her album West End Girl – but he’s remained tight-lipped following its release.
David Harbour opened up about how ‘pain and slip-ups’ in his life are ‘all part of the journey’ ahead of the release of Lily Allen’s tell-all album, West End Girl.
In an interview, which was conducted before the Smile hitmaker, 40, accused the Stranger Things actor, 50, of cheating in her 14-song expose record, Harbour reflected on his life so far.
When asked by Esquire Spain whether he would change anything about his five decades of life so far, Harbour admitted ‘mistakes’ – but said they were ‘all part of the journey’.
‘That’s such a hard question – the question of regret, or something. I would change either everything or nothing,’ he began.
‘You either accept your path completely and realise that even the pain and the slip-ups and the mistakes are all part of the journey, and that there’s truth and growth, wisdom and deeper empathy and connection in all that.
‘It’s kind of like a house of cards, the minute you try to change one thing you kind of have to change it all.’
The pair married in 2020 but announced in December last year they were divorcing
This came weeks before in songs including Madeline and Tennis, Lily accused her ex-husband of cheating, gaslighting, lying, and contemplated whether he was a ‘sex addict’ after she found his ‘Pussy Palace’ New York apartment.
In the album, Lily reflected that she agreed to let Harbour have an open relationship, singing that while ‘it had to be discreet and don’t be blatant / it had to be with strangers / there had to be payment,’ Harbour crossed a line with a woman called Madeline, who it turns out is a pseudonym for a real costume designer called Natalie Tippet.
The Not Fair hitmaker reflected how Harbour took her ‘for a fool’ and somehow ‘made it all [her] fault’, while he disregarded her feelings and carried on living a ‘double life’.
While Lily said the album is a blend of fact and fiction, the Netflix actor has remained tight-lipped on the bombshell claims.
While there was speculation about cheating when their split was announced, Lily has blown their relationship open with West End Girl.
West End Girl’s release comes during what would have been a big moment for Harbour, as the final season of Stranger Things is about to drop on Netflix on November 26 – but instead, no one can stop talking about Lily’s sensational comeback to pop after seven years, and accusations made in the process.
Reviews have dubbed West End Girl a ‘masterpiece’ beyond all its scandalous content, praising Lily for seemingly laying bare her life in the record, with catchy hooks and song-writing prowess.
Lily sings in West End Girl how Harbour’s ‘demeanour suddenly changed’ when she landed a job on the West End production of 2:22 A Ghost Story, for which she received a Laurence Olivier award.
Since the album drop, fans have unearthed moments in their relationship that in hindsight could be construed as strange.
One of these insights came at the time of the play’s opening, when Lily shared a picture of a note Harbour had sent to her, seemingly backstage.
It read: ‘My ambitious wife, these are bad luck flowers, ’cause if you get reviewed well in this play you will get all kinds of awards and I’ll be miserable. Your loving husband.’
What did Lily Allen appear to say about David Harbour in West End Girl?
In West End Girl, Lily appeared to reveal that they were in some version of an open relationship, but accused David of pushing the boundaries of this by cheating on her.
‘We had an arrangement/ Be discreet and don’t be blatant/ It had to be with strangers,’ she sings, before describing her discovery of a woman who she refers to as Madeline.
She made a whole load of bombshell claims about his behaviour during their marriage in West End Girl, her first album in seven years.
While Lily previously said she’d like to have children with David, in the album – which was met with rave reviews – the star sings about her husband considering getting a vasectomy, as she wonders whether he’d got a woman pregnant that’s not her.
She also sings in Pussy Palace that she ‘found a shoebox full of handwritten letters /From brokenhearted women wishing you could have been better’ in an apartment owned by David in New York, which she said was evidence of his ‘double life’.
Lily also sings about finding a bag full of ’sex toys, butt plugs, and lube inside’.
Fans reflected that post-West End Girl the note seems ‘backhanded’ and appears to indicate that Harbour ‘could not stand that his wife might find success as an actress’.
West End Girl listeners also looked back at Lily and Harbour’s Architectural Digest house tour, in which he even makes a cheating joke for the cameras.
Lily told the Sunday Times in a recent interview that she has ‘artistic licence’ with some of the album, and while she doesn’t think she can say it’s all true, ‘there are definitely things I experienced within my relationship that have ended up on this album,’ she said.
Rumours of trouble in paradise between Lily and David, who wed in 2020, first started swirling in early 2024, with the then-couple quickly quashing speculation that they were ‘living separate lives.’
But then they confirmed last December that they were, in fact, divorcing following five years of marriage.