Lily Allen has shared her candid feelings about balancing her career with motherhood, claiming that having children “ruined” her pop star potential.
The singer and actress burst onto the music scene at the age of 21 with her debut single, “Smile,” in 2006.
An instant hit, the song reached number one in the UK charts and launched several years in which Allen was one of Britain's biggest music stars.
However, in a new discussion of the Radio Times PodcastAllen, now 38, admitted that her musical pursuits stalled when she became a mother.
“My kids ruined my career,” she told host Kelly-Anne Taylor and fellow guest host Miquita Oliver.
“I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop stardom, they completely ruined it.”
Allen has two daughters with her ex-husband Sam Cooper: Ethel Mary, born in 2011, and Marnie Rose, born in 2013.
Lily Allen has found recent success on stage in London's West End.
(Getty Images)
Laughing, Oliver said she was pleased to hear Allen's direct take on the subject, saying, “That's such a good answer, I'm so glad to hear someone say that, because people say, 'Oh, of course not.' !'”.
Allen continued his point by sharing his frustration with the idea that it is possible to excel in both a career and parenthood in equal measure.
“It doesn't mix,” he noted. “It really bothers me when people say you can have it all because, frankly, you can't.”
The “LDN” artist later explained that she was satisfied with her choice to prioritize raising her children because of how she was raised by her own parents: actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.
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“Some people choose their career over their children's, and that is their prerogative. But my parents were pretty absent when I was growing up, and I feel like that really left some ugly scars that I'm not willing to repeat on mine,” Allen said.
“That's why I chose to step back and focus on them, and I'm glad I did because I think they're pretty well-rounded people.”
Lily Allen: “I love my children but they ruined my career”
(Getty/Radio Times Podcast)
Allen, who has been married to Strange things Star David Harbor since 2020 has previously spoken about how she struggled with the pressures of having a “successful” music career and felt embarrassed about not being successful.
“I also felt professionally embarrassed if things didn't turn out that way,” she said. Fashion in 2020. “I was trying to please everyone, so if the record company wasn't happy with my sales or people criticized my appearance, I felt like I had to do whatever it took to be considered successful.”
More recently, Allen has focused his creative energies on acting, with West End roles in 2:22 A ghost story and The pillow manas well as the Sky Atlantic comedy-drama Dreamland.
