Cliff Notes – Lily Allen’s Madeline ‘revealed’ as woman claims she had affair with David Harbour
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A woman named Natalie Tippett has come forward, claiming to have had an affair with David Harbour during his marriage to Lily Allen, leading to speculation that she is the ‘Madeline’ referenced in Allen’s new album, West End Girl.
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Lily Allen’s latest album explores themes of infidelity and the breakdown of her marriage, with lyrics suggesting Harbour violated their open relationship agreement by engaging in a secret affair with Tippett.
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Allen has stated that ‘Madeline’ is a composite character, while Tippett acknowledges her awareness of the album’s content but prefers to keep details private for the sake of her family.
Lily Allen’s Madeline ‘revealed’ as woman claims she had affair with David Harbour
A woman has claimed to have had an affair with David Harbour, which Lily Allen sings about on her new album (Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
A woman has come forward claiming to have had an affair with David Harbour during his marriage to Lily Allen, leading people to believe she is the mysterious ‘Madeline’ on the star’s new album, West End Girl.
This week, LDN hitmaker Lily, 40, dropped her first album since 2018, earning critical acclaim for her soul-baring lyrics that chronicle the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things star David, 50.
She and David met on the dating app Raya, marrying in Las Vegas in 2020 and raising a blended family with her daughters from her previous marriage to Sam Cooper.
Alas, their marriage wasn’t to go the distance, as, after almost a year of speculation, Lily and David confirmed in February that they were divorcing.
What came afterwards was an onslaught of cheating allegations against David, with Lily even referring to his alleged infidelity on her latest record and suggesting he went against their open ‘arrangement’ to only have sex with strangers outside their marriage.
In one tune, titled Madeline, the pop star sings about confronting David’s other woman over text, asking: ‘How long has it been going on? Is it just sex or is there emotion?’
West End Girl is Lily’s side of the story after she and David confirmed their divorce earlier this year (Picture: Murray Chalmers PR/PA Wire)
And while Lily has already explained that ‘Madeline’ is merely a pseudonym, now, as reports have swirled that David had a lengthy affair with an unnamed costume designer, a name has been revealed.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Natalie Tippett claims she and David had a relationship, and she is, indeed, the woman at the centre of their divorce.
Aged 34, Natalie lives in New Orleans and is a single mother.
Rolling her eyes when asked whether she had heard Lily’s new music, she responded: ‘Of course I’ve heard the song.’
Keen not to put anyone on blast, she added: ‘But I have a family and things to protect.
‘I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and I understand this is going on.
The Stranger Things actor married Lily in 2020 (Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
On her record, Lily sings about David cheating on her with ‘Madeline’ (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images for De Beers Group/EBPR)
‘It’s a little bit scary for me.’
It’s alleged that Natalie and David met in the States during shooting for Netflix movie We Have A Ghost in 2021, having struck up an illicit affair shortly after.
Once filming had concluded, it’s claimed that David and Natalie continued their secret relationship at his home in Georgia, behind Lily’s back.
However, The Mail reports that their actions were exposed when Lily noticed a text message on her then-husband’s phone.
She sings about this alleged discovery on her new tune Tennis, with lyrics including: ‘So I read your text, and now I regret it’ and ‘If it was just sex, I wouldn’t be jealous. You won’t play with me, and who’s Madeline?’
Reluctant to divulge any further sordid details, Natalie, who is a mother to a toddler, nodded when probed on whether she knew Lily was going to mention her text messages on her record.
Pictured here in 2010, Natalie Tippett (right) claims she and David had a relationship (Picture: Natalie Caudill/WireImage)
‘Yeah,’ she sighed. ‘I just don’t feel comfortable talking about it at the moment.’
Currently, David, who is due to start promoting the final season of Stranger Things ahead of its first drop in November, has remained silent on cheating allegations.
Meanwhile, Lily has been offering insight into her creative process, having been working on her 14-track album, which explores themes of cheating, gaslighting, and open relationships, since December last year.
The Not Fair vocalist has insisted that ‘Madeline’ on her new album is a character constructed of numerous people, despite what the internet believes.
In conversation with The Sunday Times, Lily was asked if Madeline is ‘a construct of others’, to which she simply replied: ‘Yes.’
Elsewhere in the interview, the Grammy Award nominee said she thinks lots of young women are no longer finding marriage and long-term relationships attractive.
Natalie, shown in 2013, is a single mother to a toddler. She lives in the US (Picture: Cooper Neill/Getty Images for W Hotels)
Lily has spoken openly about how her mental health suffered after her marriage broke down (Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage)
Lily explained: ‘I just feel we are living in really interesting times—in terms of how we define intimacy and monogamy, people being disposable or not.
‘The way we are being intimate with each other is changing as humans … Lots of young women are not finding the idea of marriage or even a long-term relationship that attractive anymore.”
Lily, whose 72-year-old dad, actor Keith Allen, and 64-year-old mum, film producer Alison Owen, divorced when she was four, added: ‘I don’t know [that] it’s necessarily bad.
‘Lots of people from my parents’ generation stayed together forever and were miserable.
‘You didn’t have endless choice, so you may have worked at something harder. But now you don’t have to.’
The Smile hitmaker also thinks ‘intimacy is inherently messy’, adding: ‘There are usually agreed-upon boundaries in relationships.
‘But whether those boundaries are adhered to or not is becoming a grey area all of a sudden.
‘Dating apps make people disposable, and that leads to the idea that if you are not happy, there’s so much more to choose from—right in your pocket.’
Reps for Lily Allen and David Harbour have been contacted for comment.
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