Lily Allen entered treatment facility after ‘spiraling’ amid reports of split from David Harbour

Singer-songwriter said she underwent lots of therapy to be her ‘strongest self’ for her children

Lily Allen has opened up about her recent stint at a treatment facility that she entered for therapy to be her “strongest self” for her children.

The 39-year-old singer-songwriter and actor spoke about her weeks-long stay at the therapy center on the latest episode of her Miss Me? podcast.

Last month, the “Smile” artist took a break from the podcast, which she co-hosts with her friend, Miquita Oliver. She said she was “spiraling” and “really not in a good place” amid reports that she has separated from her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour.

While she didn’t give additional context to the source of her troubles, she told Oliver on one of their final episodes that it had been affecting her mental health and causing eating issues.

Returning to the BBC Sounds show, Allen revealed: “I went into a treatment center for a few weeks, which was great. I did lots of group therapy and some like individual therapy.

“I needed some time and space away from everything, and I did a lot of shadow work... lots of work about my inner child stuff,” she said.

Lily Allen and David Harbour have reportedly split after four years of marriage (Getty Images)

Adding that “it was not easy by any stretch. And it's a journey, it's a life-long journey of healing. It's not a quick fix,” she said: “But I've started meditating, I meditate every day now, at least two or three times a day, that's really helping me.”

During the episode, Allen also said “people think I hate my children.”

“I absolutely adore my children and I'm in a situation now where I really have to be my strongest self for them,” Allen said. “I felt like it was getting harder and harder for me to be able to show up for them in the way that they need me to.

“It was a big decision to have to leave them for a few weeks to go and focus on myself but ultimately it was for them... that I can get us through this bit. I needed some help to be able to do that.”

She continued: “I don't want them to ever feel like they have to prop me up. None of this is their fault and it's my job to support them and make them feel safe and secure, and I just don't think I was able to do that because of the emotional turmoil that I was in at the time.

“But I do feel like I am now. I'm not saying that I'm 100 percent there or getting it 100 percent right or that I ever will but I'm definitely in a stronger place."

She said that when she was in the center, the Los Angeles wildfires broke out, and she did not know as she had no phone or TV.

“So the outside world was to make no effect on the work that we were doing,” Allen said. "So then when I got out and I heard about these fires I was like f***ing hell that seems so intense, and then a week later I was out here."

She also said that she has returned to social media, and has been “commissioned to do a musical” in Los Angeles.

“It will be a long process but this little stint is the beginning, but it's been going really well,” she added.

She said she is “not a particularly spiritual person” but mediating has helped her to live “in the moment rather than thinking about the past too much and worrying about the future too much.”

Allen, who has two daughters, Ethel and Marnie, from her previous marriage to ex-husband Sam Cooper, married Habour, 49, in 2020.

Allen has increasingly turned to acting, appearing on the West End stage in 2:22 A Ghost Story, as well as in Sky series Dreamland and the West End revival of Martin McDonagh's Olivier Award-winning comedy The Pillowman.

The daughter of Welsh actor Keith Allen, she began her musical career in 1998, and has achieved three UK No. 1 singles and two UK No. 1 albums.

Additional reporting by the Press Association