Lily Allen “not in a good place” and “spiralling”, vows break from spotlight to focus on mental health

Lily Allen has said she is taking a temporary step back from work commitments to focus on her mental health.

Speaking to her friend Miquita Oliver on the pair’s Miss Me? podcast, the ‘LDN’ singer explained that she was “finding it really hard to be interested in anything” currently. “I’m really not in a good place,” Allen continued.

“I know I’ve been talking about it for months, but I’ve been spiralling and spiralling and spiralling, and it’s got out of control,” she added. “I tried… I mean, I came to the Miss Me? Christmas lunch and had a panic attack and had to go home. And I went to see something at the theatre the other night with my friends […] and I had to leave at half-time.”

She added: “I just can’t concentrate on anything except the pain that I’m going through. And it’s really, really hard.”

Allen went on to confirm that she would be “going away” soon, and said listeners wouldn’t hear from her for “a few weeks”. However, she denied any speculation that she was going to rehab. “I’ve not relapsed,” she told Oliver.

Allen said she was “not allowed” to use her phone where she was going.

The artist hit back at one particular “vicious rumour” that she’d been discovered by her husband, Stranger Things actor David Harbour, “in a crack den being surrounded by men”.

It was reported in December that the couple had separated and ended their four-year marriage, though this has not been confirmed.

In a separate episode of Miss Me? last month, the singer told listeners that she had “stopped eating” and was “not in a good place mentally”. She also suggested that her ADHD could be playing a role, as it means her body and mind don’t link together properly at times.

“The messages of hunger are not going through my body to my brain,” Allen explained. “I’m not avoiding food, I’m just not thinking about it because I’m so in my head. My body’s, like, a few steps behind me.”

The vocalist, who has previously opened up about her sobriety, said last April that she could “lose everything” if she drank alcohol again. She struggled with both binge drinking and drug abuse in her younger years.

Allen and Oliver are set to bring their Miss Me? podcast to a live audience for the first time in March.

In other news, Allen has revealed that she is “trying to manifest” getting a new album “out by the end of the year”.