Affair, betrayal and an honest album: In “Madeline” Lilly Allen deals with her separation from David Harbour. Now the affair in question speaks.
The song “Madeline” from Lily Allen’s new album WEST END GIRL has caused a stir as a brutally honest portrait of deceit and betrayal. In the track, Allen sings about her ex-husband David Harbour’s alleged infidelity. Now it seems to be clear who “Madeline” is: the costume designer Natalie Tippett.
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Met on set
The 34-year-old from New Orleans spoke to the Daily Mail and confirmed that she had an affair with Stranger Things actor Harbour. They both met in 2021 on the set of the Netflix film “We Have A Ghost”. While Harbor played the lead role, Tippett worked in the costume department.
Tippett said she had heard the songs, but didn’t want to make a public drama out of them, according to the Daily Mail. She is the mother of a small daughter and finds the media attention “scary”. On the album, Allen sings, among other things, about discovering text messages on her husband’s cell phone that indicated the affair. In “Madeline” she imitates the supposed voice of the other woman, who asserts that it was “just sex” and that there was no emotional connection.
David Harbor disables commenting
In view of online speculation about his alleged infidelity, 50-year-old Harbor has now deactivated the comment function on his social media, according to International News. However, this is unlikely to be a permanent solution, as the promo phase for the final season of “Stranger Things” will soon begin, which will start broadcasting on November 27th.
WEST END GIRL, released October 24th via BMG, is Allen’s first record since 2018’s NO SHAME.
An album about separation and pain
In an interview with Perfect, the singer previously explained that the deeply sad and painful album stems from her breakup with Harbour. The emotional strain of this time almost jeopardized her abstinence, she said.
Allen confirmed that the album was marked by “sadness and pain,” saying, “I have deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment that I’ve dealt with for most of my adult life and probably a lot of my childhood as well. And I reacted to things in extreme ways back then.”
“I’m a pretty codependent person.”
By this she was referring to the breakdown of her marriage, as she added: “It’s hard for me not having my partner, you know? And I’m a pretty codependent person. I find it difficult to lean on the people who are there for me while I lack comfort and stability from those who aren’t available to me.”
Allen was in a relationship with Harbor, who rose to fame on Stranger Things, until the end of last year. According to their own statements, they met in 2019 on the dating app Raya and married in an intimate ceremony in Las Vegas in September 2020.
Separation from David Harbour
Earlier this year, rumors of a breakup emerged, accompanied by speculation about a possible fling for Harbour. According to NME, Allen revealed earlier this year that he had checked into a therapy facility to deal with the “emotional turmoil” of the breakup.
“I know I have to make myself happy, and that really upsets me,” she continued, speaking of the “humiliation and shame” that came with dating in your 40s. “That means putting in the damn work, and I feel like I’ve been doing this work forever. I’m exhausted from it. And I thought it was over. I thought I found my happy ending.”
A vulnerable work
WEST END GIRL is Allen’s fifth studio album and first in seven years. As NME reported, she wrote all 14 songs in ten days in Los Angeles last December. She worked with Blue May, Seb Chew and Kito. In interviews, she described the record as her most vulnerable work to date. “The album is vulnerable in a way that perhaps my music has never been before – at least not in the context of a whole album,” Allen said, according to NME.