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David Harbour has spoken about his ex Lily Allen’s tell-all album West End Girl for the first time in a new interview.
The Stranger Things actor, who is on the Emmys trail for the HBO crime drama DTF St Louis, separated from the singer in early 2025 after they married in 2020. The couple filed for divorce months after their separation.
Allen’s hit album details the explosive dissolution of a marriage, including acts of infidelity and emotional manipulation, with the singer referring to the songs as “a mixture of fact and fiction”. The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis called it “an act of unstoppable personal exorcism”.
“It was weird,” Harbour said in an interview with Variety. “I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that.”
He added: “I can’t really say that much more because it’s my private life. In spite of the fact that a lot of people don’t allow me a private life – I value it. And I also value the lives of the people that I interact with privately. I just won’t speak about that.”
When asked if he wanted to push back against any of the claims made on the album, he said: “Stories are complex and that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience.”
In an interview with Vogue, Allen said that the album was a combination of truth and fiction.
“There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel,” she said. “It is inspired by what went on in the relationship.”
Allen has followed the success of West End Girl with an accompanying concert tour. In a two-star review, the Guardian’s Claire Biddles praised the album as “a raw document of marital betrayal” but found the show to be a disappointment.
The singer is also in conversations to create a potential play inspired by the songs. “The ink is not dry,” she said. “But, you know, I’m definitely having some conversations with people about it. It’s very exciting.”
After the release of West End Girl, tabloid reports suggested that Harbour’s Stranger Things co-star Millie Bobby Brown had filed a claim of bullying and harassment against him. In the Variety interview, Harbour called the timing “weird” and denied any lasting tension between the pair.
“You’ll see more of me and Millie – 10 years wasn’t enough,” he said. “There is a special bond there. I love her. She loves me.” He also added: “I don’t know if people have families and friends that you spend a lot of time with for 10 years – you occasionally get in arguments, disagreements … It was just a simple rupture-and-repair thing that, once we cleared everybody out of the way and talked to each other, we’re fine. Everyone nowadays is very scared of talking about things.”
Harbour will next be seen reprising his role of Santa Claus in action comedy sequel Violent Night 2.
