Lily Allen's Scathing Lyrics on "West End Girl" Were Inspired by Breakdown of Her Marriage to David Harbour Ilana KaplanOctober 25, 2025 at 6:21 AM 0 Jeff Moore/PA Images via Getty Lily Allen and David Harbour in December 2023 in London Lily Allen's new album West End Girl features scathing lyrics i...
- - Lily Allen's Scathing Lyrics on "West End Girl" Were Inspired by Breakdown of Her Marriage to David Harbour
Ilana KaplanOctober 25, 2025 at 6:21 AM
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Jeff Moore/PA Images via Getty
Lily Allen and David Harbour in December 2023 in London -
Lily Allen's new album West End Girl features scathing lyrics inspired by the breakdown of her marriage to David Harbour
Songs like "Madeline" and "Pussy Palace" allude to their marital issues
The musician clarified that the lyrics "could be considered autofiction"
Lily Allen's new album West End Girl features jaw-dropping lyrics that are inspired by the breakdown of her marriage to estranged husband David Harbour.
However, the London-born musician caveats that some of the songs are written "in character", saying that the lyrics "could be considered autofiction" - a genre that combines autobiography and fiction, per a Tuesday, Oct 21 interview with Perfect Magazine.
"I've tried to document my life in a new city and the events that led me to where I am in my life now. At the same time, I've used shared experiences as the basis for songs which try to delve into why we humans behave as we do, so the record is a mixture of fact and fiction," she said in a press release statement about the album, which was released on Friday, Oct. 24
The album's title track "West End Girl" features a man doubting Allen's talent when she's been offered a role in a play.
In "Pussy Palace," "Allen," 40, seemingly discovers while dropping off a partner's clothes and medication that their West Village apartment which was supposed to be a Dojo was actually a place for affairs.
"Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside / Hundreds of Trojans, you're so fucking broken / How'd I get caught up in your double life?" she sings, also questioning if this person is a "sex addict."
Charlie Denis
Lily Allen
In the "Jolene"-like track "Madeline," Allen's character confronts a woman who she believes her partner is involved with. The "Smile" hitmaker then sings about how a partner broke the rules of their "arrangement."
"How long has it been going on? Is it just sex or is there emotion? / He told me it would stay in hotel rooms, never be out in the open / Why would I trust anything that comes out of his mouth? / Oh, why would I trust anything that comes out of his mouth?" she sings.
Allen continues, "We had an arrangement / Be discreet and don't be blatant / There had to be payment / It had to be with strangers / But you're not a stranger, Madeline."
On "Dallas Major," Allen sings about feeling like she was in an open marriage that wasn't her choice.
Charlie Denis
Lily Allen
"Yes, I'm here for validation and I probably should explain / How my marriage has been open since my husband went astray," she sings on the track.
Allen details hurt caused by extra-marital activities in "Sleepwalking."
"Course I'm angry, course I'm hurt / Looking back at it's so absurd / Course I trusted you and took you at your worst (At your worst) / Who said romance isn't dead? Been no romance since we wed / "Why aren't we fucking baby?" Yeah that's what you said / But you let me think it was me in my head /And nothing to do with them girls in your bed," she sings," adding on the bridge, "I know you've made me your Madonna / I wanna be your w—."
In "Tennis," Allen's character discovers a partner's texts with "Madeline" and becomes suspicious.
"I can't get my head round how you've been playing tennis / If it was just sex, I wouldn't be jealous / You won't play with me and who's Madeline?" she asks.
Allen sings about a partner's apparent infidelity on "4chan Stan."
"I think you're sinking, you're protecting a lie / And you don't want her thinking that you'd cheat on your wife / You're such a coward, you can't tell the truth / You love all the power but you're not even cute though, no, no, no," she sings.
"Nonmonogamummy" seemingly laments her relationship with an ex and what she thought it would be. "I changed my immigration status for you to treat me like a stranger / Why do I feel like such a failure? A life with you looked good on paper (I love you)," she sings.
On "Just Enough," Allen's autofictional lyrics question whether a partner got someone pregnant.
"Did you get someone pregnant? Someone who isn't me? / Did you take her to the clinic? Did you hold her hand? / Is she having your babies?" she wonders.
The album closer "Fruityloop" is seemingly a kiss-off to an ex that features some semblance of closure.
Nieves Gonzalez
Lily Allen 'West End Girl' artwork
"It is what it is, you're a mess, I'm a bitch / Wish I could fix all your shit, but all your s---'s yours to fix," she sings.
A rep for Harbour did not comment.
In a Friday, Oct. 17 interview with British Vogue, Allen opened up about how her marriage impacted West End Girl.
"There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that's not to say that it's all gospel," she said. "It is inspired by what went on in the relationship."
She also revealed she went to a treatment facility following the breakdown of her marriage.
Multiple sources confirmed to PEOPLE in Fevruary that Harbour, 50, and Allen separated after four years of marriage. The pair were first linked in 2019 and married in a Las Vegas ceremony in September 2020.
A source told PEOPLE after the split that Allen — who shares daughters Marnie Rose, 12, and Ethel Mary, 13, with ex-husband Sam Cooper — was "devastated and not in a good place."
The sourced added that their separation has "been very hard for her and her girls."
West End Girl is out now.
on People
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