{"id":494026,"date":"2026-06-11T09:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494026\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:29:08","slug":"david-harbour-on-lily-allens-west-end-girl-album-it-wasnt-my-experience-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/494026\/","title":{"rendered":"David Harbour on Lily Allen\u2019s West End Girl album: \u2018It wasn\u2019t my experience\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Harbour has spoken about his ex Lily Allen<\/a>\u2019s tell-all album West End Girl for the first time in a new interview.<\/p>\n

The Stranger Things actor, who is on the Emmys trail for the HBO crime drama DTF St Louis, separated from the singer in early 2025 after they married in 2020. The couple filed for divorce months after their separation.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s hit album details the explosive dissolution of a marriage, with the singer referring to the songs as \u201ca mixture of fact and fiction\u201d. The Guardian\u2019s Alexis Petridis called it \u201can act of unstoppable personal exorcism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was weird,\u201d Harbour said in an interview with Variety. \u201cI do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI can\u2019t really say that much more because it\u2019s my private life. In spite of the fact that a lot of people don\u2019t allow me a private life \u2013 I value it. And I also value the lives of the people that I interact with privately. I just won\u2019t speak about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he wanted to push back against any of the claims made on the album, he said: \u201cStories are complex and that\u2019s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn\u2019t my experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Vogue, Allen said that the album was a combination of truth and fiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that\u2019s not to say that it\u2019s all gospel,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is inspired by what went on in the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BritishBritish singer Lily Allen. Photograph: Ellie Smith\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Lily Allen: West End Girl review \u2013 Unflinching account of doomed relationship is a tough listenOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Allen has followed the success of West End Girl with an accompanying concert tour. In a two-star review, the Guardian\u2019s Claire Biddles praised the album as \u201ca raw document of marital betrayal\u201d but found the show to be a disappointment.<\/p>\n

The singer is also in conversations to create a potential play inspired by the songs. \u201cThe ink is not dry,\u201d she said. \u201cBut, you know, I\u2019m definitely having some conversations with people about it. It\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the release of West End Girl, tabloid reports suggested that Harbour\u2019s Stranger Things co-star Millie Bobby Brown had filed a claim of bullying and harassment against him. In the Variety interview, Harbour called the timing \u201cweird\u201d and denied any lasting tension between the pair.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see more of me and Millie \u2013 10 years wasn\u2019t enough,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a special bond there. I love her. She loves me.\u201d He also added: \u201cI don\u2019t know if people have families and friends that you spend a lot of time with for 10 years \u2013 you occasionally get in arguments, disagreements … It was just a simple rupture-and-repair thing that, once we cleared everybody out of the way and talked to each other, we\u2019re fine. Everyone nowadays is very scared of talking about things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harbour will next be seen reprising his role of Santa Claus in action comedy sequel Violent Night 2. \u2013 Guardian <\/p>\n

[\u00a0No, Lily Allen, we were never meant to know this much about one anotherOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Harbour has spoken about his ex Lily Allen\u2019s tell-all album West End Girl for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60,64221],"class_list":["post-494026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lily-allen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}