A woman has come forward claiming to have had an affair with David Harbour during his marriage to Lily Allen.
- READ MORE: Lily Allen – ‘West End Girl’ review: a vicious, vulnerable and victorious comeback
The singer-songwriter’s new album ‘West End Girl’ arrived on Friday (October 24) via BMG and marked her first LP in seven years – following on from 2018’s ‘No Shame’.
News of Allen’s separation from Harbour arose towards the start of the year, amid rumours that there was cheating on the Stranger Things star’s part. Earlier this year, Allen revealed that she went into a treatment centre to deal with the “emotional turmoil” of the split.
Allen’s split from Harbour has proved a huge source of inspiration for her new record with one track, entitled ‘Madeline’, seeing the pop star singing about confronting Harbour’s other woman over text, asking: “How long has it been going on? Is it just sex or is there emotion?”
Now, according to The Mail On Sunday, a woman named Natalie Tippett claims she and Harbour had a relationship.
When asked about the track ‘Madeline’, she told the publication: “Of course I’ve heard the song. 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. It’s a little bit scary for me.”
On another track ‘Tennis’, Allen recalls finding messages to another woman on the phone of her lover when going on his phone. “I read your texts, and now I regret it… If it was just sex, I wouldn’t be jealous. You won’t play with me, and who’s Madeline?” she sings.
When asked whether she knew the singer-songwriter was going to mention her text messages on her record, Tippett said: “Yeah, I just don’t feel comfortable talking about it at the moment.”
Despite her claims, Allen insisted in an interview with The Sunday Times that the song ‘Madeline’ is a fictional character who is a “construct of others”.
Allen also said she thinks lots of young women are no longer finding marriage and long-term relationships attractive.
She added: “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.”
Allen and Harbour are yet to respond publicly to Tippett’s claims.
‘West End Girl’ was given a four-star review from NME, and praised as “a sleek, smart collection that sees Allen back at her very best”.
“As you’d expect from her most ‘vulnerable’ album, there’s a lot of grief and misery across ‘West End Girl’, but it never sounds depressing,” it read. “Since ‘Smile’, Allen’s always had a knack for making devastation sound exciting.
“There’s rage behind the pulsating ‘Ruminating’ as she struggles with the realities of an open marriage, playful other woman anthem ‘Madeline’ is a dizzying cocktail of uncertainty, fury and empathy, while the gorgeous ‘Just Enough’ is as crushing as it gets, heartbreak amplified by lush strings. It feels like a much-needed purge.”
