‘You Can’t Have It All’

During a recent appearance on the Radio Times Podcast, Allen opened up about stepping away from her career to raise her children.

The British-born singer, who shares daughters Marnie Rose, 11, and Ethel Mary, 12, with ex-husband Sam Cooper, said that while she loves her children, they “ruined” her chance at pop stardom.

“My children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop stardom, they totally ruined it,” Allen said. “I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.”

While some in Hollywood have chosen their career over their children, Allen said having parents that were “quiet absent” when she was a kid prompted her to be there for hers.

Lily’s father, actor Keith Allen, walked out on her film producer mother, Alison Owen, when she was just four years old.

“I feel like it left some nasty scars that I’m not willing to repeat on mine,” she shared.

Allen, who took a step back from both her career and her busy life in London, moved to the country in 2011 to raise her children, and she’s glad she did, telling the Radio Times, “they’re pretty well-rounded.”

Now, Allen lives in New York with her children and new husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, whom she married in 2020.

Elsewhere in the interview, the “Alfie” singer dished on how she turned back to acting, crediting her sobriety journey for opening her up to new opportunities.

“I was about two years sober, I’d just moved to New York,” she shared. “A big part of sobriety is surrendering and letting God, in whatever way you want to believe in that, have a plan for you.”

Allen continued, “I got a call from a casting director who was putting on a play [2:22 A Ghost Story] in the West End. I said, ‘No, I’m not an actress.'” She had previously appeared in a couple of films involving her her family, Elizabeth in 1998 co-produced by her mother, and 2019’s How to Build a Girl with her brother Alfie.

“But then I was talking to David — I’d been feeling a bit directionless and didn’t really know what I was doing with my life, except for being a mum and setting up a new home in Brooklyn,” she added. “He said, ‘Maybe you should call them back’ and five weeks later I was in rehearsal.'”

Allen would go on to receive a Best actress Olivier Award nomination for her performance in the play, prompting her to take on more roles, including Martin McDonagh’s play The Pillowman last year, as well as the film Dreamland.

So maybe you can have it all — just not all at the same time.