Age, Biography, and Wiki
Lily Rose Beatrice Allen was born on May 2, 1985, making her 40 years old as of June 2025. She hails from England and is internationally recognized for her candid songwriting and pop sensibilities. Allen’s early foray into acting included a brief role in the 1998 film "Elizabeth" and a music video appearance for Fat Les’ "Vindaloo." At 15, she left school, and by leveraging connections, she signed to London Records in 2002, kickstarting her music career.
Her breakthrough came in 2006 with the release of her debut album, Alright, Still, which featured hit singles like "Smile," "LDN," and "Alfie." "Smile" topped the UK charts and gained international acclaim. Her 2009 follow-up, It's Not Me, It's You, debuted at number 1 in the UK, Canada, and Australia, and reached number 5 in the US, selling over a million copies in the UK alone.
| Occupation | Environmentalist |
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| Date of Birth | 2 May 1985 |
| Age | 40 Years |
| Birth Place | Hammersmith, London, England |
| Horoscope | Taurus |
| Country | England |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Publicly available information about Lily Allen’s exact height and weight is limited. She has never disclosed these details officially. However, Allen is often described as petite and is estimated to be approximately 5 feet 2 inches (157 cm) tall, based on media coverage and photographs.
In 2007, she played the newly launched Park Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, replacing MIA who had cancelled. During the festival she reunited two members of The Specials, an act that guitarist Lynval Golding claimed played a "massive part" in the group's 2009 reunion. She also sang the vocals on the top ten single, "Oh My God", a cover of the Kaiser Chiefs song by Mark Ronson. On 1 July 2007, Allen appeared at the Concert for Diana held at Wembley Stadium, London, to celebrate the life of Princess Diana. She sang "LDN" and "Smile". Allen's single "Littlest Things" from her album produced by Ronson helped earn him a "Producer of the Year – Non Classical" 2008 Grammy Award. She also provided background vocals for a couple of songs on the Kaiser Chiefs' third album in 2008. Allen won a 2008 BMI songwriting award for "Smile".
It's Not Me, It's You was released in February 2009. It debuted at the number 1 position in the UK, Canada, and Australia and the number 5 position in the United States. The album has been certified platinum in the United Kingdom. The release of the album was a factor in EMI more than trebling their earnings. The first single from the album, "The Fear", was number 1 for the first four weeks in the UK after its release. The second single released from the album, "Not Fair", reached the number 9 position. She began her It's Not Me, It's You World Tour in March, touring throughout the next two years until September 2010. Her work on this album with Greg Kurstin earned her the Songwriters of the Year at the 2010 Ivor Novello Awards. In addition, she won with Kurstin Best Song Musically and Lyrically and Most Performed Work for "The Fear". Allen appeared overwhelmed by this recognition from what she considered "real awards". In October 2010, Allen won her second BMI Pop Song Award by the United States music licensing organisation Broadcast Music Incorporated for extensive United States radio airplay of her song, "The Fear".
| Height | 5 feet 2 inches |
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Dating & Relationship Status
Lily Allen’s personal life has been the subject of media speculation over the years. She was previously married to Sam Cooper, with whom she has two children. The couple divorced in 2018. Since then, Allen has largely kept her romantic life private, and there have been no widely reported relationships confirmed as of 2025.
At the age of three, Allen appeared in The Comic Strip Presents... episode "The Yob", which her father had co-written. When she was four, her father left the family. During her early childhood, Allen lived with her family on a council estate. They later settled in Islington. For that time, the family lived with comedian Harry Enfield whilst her mother dated him. The Clash singer and guitarist Joe Strummer was close to Allen.
When her family went to Ibiza on holiday, Allen told her mother that she was staying with friends but remained in Sant Antoni de Portmany instead. She earned money by working at a Plastic Fantastic record store and dealing ecstasy at the age of 15. Allen met her first manager, George Lamb, in Ibiza. She first recorded the vocals for "On Me Head Not Off Me Head" written by her father for Mike Bassett: England Manager in 2001, and was featured in the 2002 song by her father's group Fat Les, "Who Invented Fish and Chips". She started to work with music producers, and recorded a demo. She was rejected by several labels, which she attributed to her drinking and being the daughter of Keith Allen. She eventually used her father's connections to get signed to London Records in 2002. When the executive who had signed her left, the label lost interest and she left without releasing the folk songs many of which were written by her father. She then studied horticulture to become a florist, but changed her mind and returned to music. Allen began writing songs, while her manager introduced her to production duo Future Cut in 2004. They worked in a small studio in the basement of an office building.
Following the release of Sheezus (2014), Allen had an "identity crisis". She did not enjoy the music she was being asked to create and believed people within the music industry were controlling her musical choices. Allen mentioned on the podcast News Roast that she is working on a new album, which will mainly deal with herself, her relationship with her children, the breakdown of her marriage, substance abuse, etc. Allen has been working with Mark Ronson. In late 2017, Allen uploaded numerous songs online in preparation for the album, including the track titled "Family Man". When conceiving the album Allen wanted to work through her problems via music. Allen decided to do this because she felt that people are often led "by outside forces" when they are trying to express themselves – something she wanted to explore when creating No Shame.
Allen's song "Who'd Have Known" was sampled in T-Pain's single "5 O'Clock" because of her accent. Joe Strummer, a close friend of Allen's father Keith, played mixtapes of Brazilian music and Jamaican reggae and ska when she was young. Allen stated that she had "always been into very black music" such as ska, reggae, and hip hop music. Since she did not know how to rap, she chose to use reggae as a point of reference when making Alright, Still. The album's music blends ska and reggae with pop melodies. Allen's melodies are influenced by the jazz improvisation techniques of American singers Blossom Dearie and Ella Fitzgerald. The album's beats are influenced by various genres such as jazz and grime. Singers Lady Gaga, Tegan and Sara, Bridgit Mendler, Jullie and Victoria Justice have each been influenced by Allen.
Allen made an appearance as a lady-in-waiting in the 1998 film Elizabeth, which was co-produced by her mother. She later appeared as Elizabeth Taylor in How to Build a Girl in July 2019, alongside her brother Alfie.
Allen began dating musician Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers in September 2007, and in December, Allen announced that she and Simons were expecting a child. Allen announced that she suffered a miscarriage in January 2008. However, in her 2018 memoir My Thoughts Exactly, Allen writes that she had had an abortion, but "fake[d]" the miscarriage due to fears over how tabloids would report the story. After five months of dating, Allen's relationship with Simons ended. Allen has stated that she spent three weeks in a psychiatric clinic due to depression.
In July 2009, Allen began dating Sam Cooper, a builder and decorator. On 5 August 2010, Allen announced that she was pregnant with her and Cooper's first child, later confirmed to be a boy, due early in 2011. She experienced complications early in the pregnancy, including "about a week and a half of really heavy bleeding". In late October, six months into her pregnancy, Allen contracted a viral infection, which caused her to suffer a stillbirth, announced on 1 November. On 6 November, Allen was admitted to a hospital, where she responded well to treatment for septicaemia. In February 2017, Allen explained that she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after the stillbirth.
Allen began a relationship with actor David Harbour in 2019. They made their red carpet debut during the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. A day after they obtained their marriage certificate, they got married on 7 September 2020 in Las Vegas, in a wedding that was officiated by an Elvis impersonator. The couple share a home in Brooklyn. Allen said in 2024 that she had prioritised her children over her career as a contrast to the relative absence of her parents. In December 2024, newspapers alleged that Allen and Harbour had separated, after Allen's dating profile was reportedly spotted on the exclusive dating app Raya —but these allegations have not yet been confirmed by the couple.
Allen has been outspoken regarding her body image throughout her career. In an interview for Lorraine, an ITV breakfast program, Allen mentions that she "used to sleep for days so that [she] didn't eat" and that her relationship with her body was "not great" in her 20s. When asked about being influenced by the pressure of the music industry to "look a certain way in order to sell records", she replied that due to her defiant way of dealing with these unrealistic expectations, she was often criticised far more than the average musician. In January 2021, Allen gave an interview to discuss how she became addicted to the prescription drug Adderall in 2014 to lose weight before supporting Miley Cyrus on her Bangerz tour. She began a journey of recovery soon after when she was tempted to try heroin. In February 2017, Allen said that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 2023, she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Allen has spoken publicly about her seven-year stalking ordeal and the effect it had on her life. Her stalker, Alex Gray, first made contact with Allen in 2008 when he sent her a series of tweets, claiming he had written her song "The Fear", under the Twitter handle "@lilyallenisRIP". He then sent Allen threatening letters to her home, her clothes shop, her record label and her manager's office. In October 2015, he sent an email to his mother stating he was planning on murdering a celebrity and went on to spend nights in Allen's back garden, broke into her bedroom whilst she was sleeping, and ultimately forced Allen to move. Allen has strongly criticised the Metropolitan Police for their inaction in the case, which included refusals to show Allen a picture of her stalker, lending her a panic alarm before demanding it back and refusal to believe stalking incidents were linked. In April 2016, Gray was convicted of burglary and harassment. At Harrow Crown Court on 10 June, Judge Martyn Barklem sentenced him to an indefinite hospital order. Gray was also made the subject of a restraining order and banned from entering the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham or the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
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| Husband | Sam Cooper (m. 2011-2018) David Harbour (m. 2020) |
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Net Worth and Salary
Lily Allen’s net worth in 2025 is estimated to be between $4 million and $20 million, though more recent and reliable sources generally cite the lower end of this range. The discrepancy is likely due to different methods of calculation and the inclusion or exclusion of music catalog sales, publishing rights, and other assets.
From streaming, her reported earnings are modest compared to her peak album sales. Industry estimates suggest she earns less than $8,000 a month from Spotify, but her recorded-music income is likely supplemented by other sources. Notably, Allen has publicly stated that her earnings from selling feet photos on OnlyFans exceed her monthly Spotify income, reportedly bringing in over $10,000 monthly from the platform. This entrepreneurial pivot has drawn significant media attention and illustrates how modern artists diversify their revenue streams.
In November 2013, Allen recorded a cover of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" for the John Lewis Christmas advert with a portion of the song's sales earnings donated to Save the Children's Philippine Typhoon Appeal campaign. Released as a download single, it reached number one in the UK singles chart on 24 November. On 12 November 2013, Allen premiered the video for her new song "Hard Out Here" on her official website. The song was released as a download the following week and entered the UK singles chart at number nine, giving Allen two simultaneous top ten hit singles. Allen's November 2013 video for "Hard out Here" was accused of being racist for its use of mostly black dancers in an allegedly "disapproving" manner. Allen responded that ethnicity was not a factor in hiring the dancers, and the video was a lighthearted satirical look at objectification of women in modern pop music. In November 2016, Allen apologised for the video in an interview with Annie Mac, stating "I definitely wanted to make a feminist statement. But I was guilty of assuming that there was a one-size-fits-all where feminism is concerned." In December 2013, Allen was announced as one of the newest signees at Warner Bros. Records due to Warner Music Group acquiring Parlophone from Universal Music Group in May 2013. On 13 January 2014, the song "Air Balloon" was premiered on BBC Radio 1 and was released on 2 March 2014, as the second single from Allen's third studio album Sheezus. The album was released on 5 May 2014. Allen performed at the Glastonbury Festival 2014.
Career, Business, and Investments
- Music: Allen’s four studio albums have been released through major labels Regal and Parlophone. Her songwriting is handled by Universal Music Publishing Group.
- Streaming and Digital Ventures: While Spotify and other digital platforms generate modest royalties for Allen, she has capitalized on her public profile by launching entrepreneurial projects such as her OnlyFans account.
- Television and Media: Allen has expanded her career into television, hosting her own talk show and making appearances on various programs. This diversification has broadened her influence and income sources beyond music.
- Live Performances: Following successful album releases, Allen has toured internationally, including her It's Not Me, It's You World Tour, which ran from 2009 to 2010.
Allen's musical career began in 2005 when she was signed to Regal Recordings and began publishing her vocal recordings on the social networking site Myspace. Their popularity resulted in airplay on BBC Radio 1. Her 2006 debut commercial single, "Smile", reached number one on the UK Singles Chart by July of that year and received double Platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Allen's debut studio album, Alright, Still (2006), was met with positive critical reception, peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart, and sold over 2.6 million copies worldwide. The album also yielded a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album and spawned the follow up singles "LDN" and "Alfie".
In September 2009, Allen announced that she was considering a career in acting, that she would not renew her record contract, and that she had "no plans" to make another record. In September 2010, she gave her last performance for two and a half years, supporting Muse at Wembley Stadium in London, England. She featured on the UK top five single, "Just Be Good to Green" by Professor Green in June 2010. The following month, she started writing songs for the musical version of Bridget Jones's Diary which was scheduled to open in London's West End in 2012. Also in 2011, T-Pain used a verse from Allen's "Who'd Have Known" as the chorus to the song "5 O'Clock", which became the second single from his album Revolver. The song, which also features Wiz Khalifa, was released in September 2011, and reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it Allen's first Top 10 single in the United States.
In October 2020, Allen worked with the sex tech company Womanizer to create her own sex toy called "Liberty", a clitoral pump. She is the chief liberation officer at Womanizer and is heading up their #IMasturbate campaign which encourages women to embrace their own sexuality. Liberty was positively reviewed in The Independent and Mashable. The product sucks and massages the clitoris without making direct contact, using sonic waves to induce sexual pleasure. It is waterproof and has six different intensity levels. Allen had previously recommended Womanizer's products in her autobiography My Thoughts Exactly.
In November 2010, she took legal action against Associated Newspapers, the parent company of the Daily Mail, after the newspaper published photographs of her home. Allen cited invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.
After the British government's plans to implement a three-strikes policy for file sharing copyright infringement, Allen came out in support for disconnecting repeat offenders. Creating a blog titled "It's Not Alright" against file sharing, it subsequently came to light that she had copied text directly from the Techdirt website of an interview with 50 Cent, without attribution. This led to accusations that Allen had infringed on other artists' copyrights by creating mix tapes early in her career, that she then made available via her website. A group of supporters of filesharing, operating under the name "Anonymous", launched a denial of service attack dubbed Operation Payback that shut down Allen's website and targeted other critics.
Social Network
Lily Allen is highly active on social media, where she engages directly with fans and critics alike. She has a strong presence on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and TikTok. Her candid posts and willingness to address controversies—including online misogyny and the challenges of being an artist in the digital age—have amplified her public profile.
Allen also ventured into other careers; in 2008, she hosted her own television talk show, Lily Allen and Friends, on BBC Three before launching her own record label, In the Name Of, in 2011. In 2018, Allen released her autobiographical book, My Thoughts Exactly. As an actress, Allen appeared in the 2019 film How to Build a Girl. In 2021, she made her West End debut in the new play 2:22 A Ghost Story, for which she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress. She is a daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen.
In 2005, Allen was signed to Regal Recordings; they gave her £25,000 to produce an album, though they were unable to provide much support for it due to their preoccupation with other releases such as X&Y (Coldplay) and Demon Days (Gorillaz). Allen then created an account on Myspace and began posting demos that she recorded in November 2005. The demos attracted thousands of listeners, and 500 limited edition 7-inch vinyl singles of "LDN" were rush-released, reselling for as much as £40. Allen also produced two mixtapes – My First Mixtape and My Second Mixtape – to promote her work. As she accumulated tens of thousands of Myspace friends, The Observer Music Monthly (OMM), a magazine published in The Observer, took interest in March 2006. Few people outside of her label's A&R department knew who she was, so the label was slow in responding to publications wanting to report about her. She received her first major mainstream coverage, appearing in the magazine's cover story two months later.
After the release of her first album, her parent record company, EMI, was taken over by Terra Firma. She also changed her management company from Empire Artist Management to Twenty-First Artists, although her core team remained in place. At the urging of her record company, Allen tried unsuccessfully to create the album with several writers and producers. Allen eventually returned to Greg Kurstin who had written three songs for Alright, Still. The album was produced by Kurstin at Eagle Rock Studios in Los Angeles. Before returning to Kus, Allen co-wrote the songs for the album with Kurstin who played piano on it. This is a change from her earlier work in which she wrote lyrics for finished tracks. Allen released a statement saying "We decided to try and make bigger sounding, more ethereal songs, real songs ... I wanted to work with one person from start to finish to make it one body of work. I wanted it to feel like it had some sort of integrity. I think I've grown up a bit as a person and I hope it reflects that." She posted two new song demos on her Myspace page and planned to release a mixtape to give her fans an idea of what the new direction was.
In April 2019, Allen revealed on Beats 1 radio that she was working on her next record which would be a concept album. Allen later said in March 2020 that her new album only features "odd mentions" of her past addictions. She said: "This album I've been doing, I've been writing for just over a year, but I feel like I've moved on mentally so far from that time."
In the Glastonbury Festival 2022, Allen appeared during Olivia Rodrigo's set to perform "Fuck You", as a protest against the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that abortion was not protected by the Constitution of the United States. The Guardian described it as a "thrilling, furious" moment. Allen later said that she was unsure that she could perform "on a stage like that sober again", being nearly three years sober.
In June 2021, Allen announced that she would be playing the lead role of Jenny in the West End play 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Noël Coward Theatre from 3 August 2021. The play, directed by Matthew Dunster and written by Danny Robins saw Allen debut in August 2021. Reviewing the play for The Independent, Annabel Nugent wrote, "Allen is superb as Jenny. Exhaustion thrums a fraction below her palpable fear – just visible enough in her performance to have you questioning Jenny's version of events". In 2022, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress, and also won a WhatsOnStage Award for her performance.
In 2023, Allen starred as Katurian in a revival of Martin McDonagh's play The Pillowman at the Duke of York's Theatre, London opposite Steve Pemberton, Paul Kaye and Matthew Tennyson. It was directed by Matthew Dunster who also directed 2:22 A Ghost Story.
Allen signed a one-series contract to present her own BBC Three TV show titled Lily Allen and Friends based on the social networking phenomenon that helped to launch her music career. Guests included Mark Ronson, Joanna Page, James Corden, Lauren Laverne, Róisín Murphy, Louis Walsh, and Danny Dyer. The show attracted only 2 per cent of the total multi-channel audience despite a high-profile nationwide marketing campaign. Citing Allen's rapid development as a TV host and her popularity among its target audience BBC Three announced it was renewing Lily Allen and Friends for a second season. BBC Three controller Danny Cohen later said that the show would not air in the spring of 2009 as originally scheduled because of music commitments.
On 2 September 2018, Allen posted on Instagram that she had had sex with female escorts in 2014 whilst married to Cooper, and whilst on tour promoting Sheezus. Allen had included details of these events in her book My Thoughts Exactly, and said that she made the Instagram post as the Daily Mail were planning to publish an article about it the following day. Saying that "I'm not proud, but I'm not ashamed", Allen has linked the events to her postnatal depression and the breakdown of her marriage. Allen has criticised the press for portraying the events as a "lesbian prostitute sex romp".
In My Thoughts Exactly, Allen writes that she had an affair with Liam Gallagher when he was married to Nicole Appleton. In mid-2015, Allen and Cooper broke up, after she told him about her acts of infidelity. In June 2018, it was publicly announced that a "friendly divorce" from Cooper had been finalised and they would share custody of their children.
Due to her outspokenness, Allen was the subject of many controversies early in her career. Disparaging remarks about musicians such as Luke Pritchard of The Kooks, Bob Geldof, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts, Amy Winehouse, Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry have all garnered minor press attention. She later said that making fun of other pop stars was a result of a lack of confidence, saying "I felt like 'Oh God, I'm short, fat, ugly and I hate all these people who flaunt their beauty.'"
In May 2009, French football magazine So Foot published a fake interview in which Allen was quoted as making derogatory remarks about David and Victoria Beckham and Ashley and Cheryl Cole. Some of the material was reprinted in the British tabloid The Sun. Both publications later apologised and paid damages to Allen. In October 2009, after having created her career on Myspace, Allen deleted her social media accounts and announced "I am now a neo-luddite. Goodbye". She re-activated her accounts four months later in February 2010.
Education
Lily Allen left formal education at age 15. Despite this, she has spoken openly about the importance of self-education and the value she places on critical thinking and artistic expression. Her early departure from school was followed by a period of creative exploration, which ultimately led her to her music career.
She has an elder sister, Sarah; a younger brother, actor Alfie (subject of her song "Alfie"); and a younger sister, Rebecca. Alison Owen was from a devoutly Catholic working-class Portsmouth family, and was 17 when she gave birth to Sarah. Allen is the goddaughter of director Daniel Kleinman and Wild Colonials vocalist Angela McCluskey and a third cousin of singer Sam Smith.
Allen attended 13 schools, including King Charles III's junior alma mater Hill House School and Bedales School, and was expelled from several of them for drinking and smoking. When Allen was eleven, former University of Victoria music student Rachel Santesso overheard her singing "Wonderwall" by Oasis in the school's playground; impressed, Santesso, who later became an award-winning soprano and composer, called Allen into her office the next day and started giving her lunchtime singing lessons. This led to Allen singing "Baby Mine" from Disney's Dumbo at a school concert.
Allen told Loveline that the audience was "brought to tears at the sight of a troubled young girl doing something good". At that point Allen said she knew that music was something she needed to do either as a lifelong vocation or to get it out of her system. She played the piano to grade 5 standard and achieved grade 8 in singing. Allen also played violin, guitar and trumpet, and was a member of a chamber choir. Her first solo was "In the Bleak Midwinter". In 1998, Allen appeared in the music video to the Fat Les song "Vindaloo". She dropped out of school aged fifteen, not wanting to "spend a third of her life preparing to work for the next third of her life, to set herself up with a pension for the next third of her life."
