Lily Allen does not subscribe to the idea that parenthood can be combined with a successful career: “My children ruined my career,” she says in the Radio Times podcast.Photo: Instagram @lilyallen
It was when singer Lily Allen, 38, recently appeared on the Radio Times podcast that she was asked if she had to change her career strategy when she became a mother – and gave an unexpectedly blunt answer:
“I’ve never really had a strategy when it comes to my career, but yeah, my kids ruined my career,” she says in the episode, which aired Tuesday. “I mean, I love them and they make me complete, but when it comes to reaching the top as a pop star, they totally ruined it.”
“Chosen to take a step back”
In the episode, Allen – who broke through with debut album “Alright Still” in 2006 – says she chose to prioritize her two daughters, whom she shares with ex-husband Sam Cooper, 46, over her career because her own parents were “quite absent” during her childhood:
“I feel like that left some ugly scars that I’m not willing to repeat [med mina barn]”, she says. “I chose to take a step back and focus on them, and I’m glad I did because I think they’re pretty good people.”
She adds that she does not at all believe in the myth that you can “get everything” as a woman:
“It really annoys me when people say you can have it all because, frankly, you can’t,” she says. “Some choose their careers over their children and that is their choice.”
Allen currently lives in New York with her daughters and husband David Harbour, 48, whom she married in 2020.
