Lily Allen insists 'you can't have it all' after choosing motherhood over pop-stardom: 'I love my children but they ruined my career'

After years spent as one of London’s most notorious party girls, she moved to the country and had children in 2011.

But now Lily Allen has admitted her two daughters have ‘totally ruined’ her pop career because she chose to prioritise them instead of work - insisting, ‘You can’t have it all’.

The singer-turned-actress, 38, said she believes women have to decide whether to put their children or their career first, saying she chose the former.

‘My children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop-stardom, they totally ruined it,’ she told the Radio Times Podcast. 

‘I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.

Lily Allen has admitted her two daughters have ‘totally ruined’ her pop career because she chose to prioritise them instead of work - insisting, ‘You can’t have it all’

The singer-turned-actress, 38, said she believes women have to decide whether to put their children or their career first, saying she chose the former (L-R: Lily Allen, daughters Marnie Rose Cooper and Ethel Cooper, and actor husband David Harbour)

‘Some people choose their career over their children and that’s their prerogative, but my parents were quite absent when I was a kid.

‘I feel like it left some nasty scars that I’m not willing to repeat on mine.’

Lily's father is actor Keith Allen, 70, who walked out on her film producer mother Alison Owen, 63, when Lily was four years old.

Lily has now said that she ‘chose to step back and concentrate on my children’ and she’s glad that she has as ‘they’re pretty well-rounded.’

The Smile singer shares two daughters Ethel Mary, 12, and Marnie Rose, 10, with her ex-husband builder Sam Cooper, 45, but released her last studio album No Shame in 2018.

Lily now lives in New York with her children and new husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, 48, whom she married in 2020 and has turned her hand to acting.

She said: ‘I was about two years sober, I’d just moved to New York.

‘A big part of sobriety is surrendering and letting God – in whatever way you want to believe in that – have a plan for you.

‘My children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but in terms of popstardom, they totally ruined it. I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t' (pictured 2006)

The Smile singer shares two daughters Ethel Mary, 12, and Marnie Rose, 10, with her ex-husband builder Sam Cooper, 45, but released her last studio album No Shame in 2018 (pictured 2021)

‘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”.

‘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.

‘He said, “Maybe you should call them back” and five weeks later I was in rehearsal.’

For her performance in 2:22 A Ghost Story Lily received a Best Actress Olivier Award nomination in 2022. 

She has since starred in Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman last year, for which she received mixed reviews.

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