LILY ALLEN
The singer’s “scary” encounter with Harvey Weinstein.
Speaking via satellite from London, mother-oftwo Lily Allen dropped a bombshell: her own mother had been subjected to a shocking experience with shamed mogul Harvey Weinstein. Talking to Andrew Denton on Seven’s Interview in an episode that aired on June 20, the singer, 33, opened up about a ‘scary’ moment her mother had with the disgraced Hollywood producer, who Allen has known since she was a baby, but had “never suspected anything” inappropriate was happening.
“My mum’s worked quite closely with Harvey,” Allen said of her mother, Alison Owen, 57, an acclaimed film producer whose credits include Shaun of the Dead and Saving Mr. Banks. Allen then recounted an alleged incident her mother told her had taken place when Owen and Weinstein were interested in collaborating with director Jane Campion on the 2003 film, In the Cut.
At a private screening of the film, Weinstein is said to have performed a sexual act. “It was the first time [star] Meg Ryan had done nudity,” Allen told Denton. “It was just my mum and Harvey in a screening room. Just when Meg was getting her clothes off, she heard this grunting noise from behind,” Allen said. “It was Harvey pleasuring himself, in a dark room, with my mum sitting in front of him.”
It was “a quite scary and
“She heard this grunting noise. It was Harvey pleasuring himself”
intimidating experience for her to go through,” she said. Despite the Hollywood magnate’s alleged conduct, Owen continued working with him. “That goes to show how powerful he was, that she didn’t feel like she could say anything,” said Allen.
Since sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein surfaced in October 2017, more than 80 female victims have come forward against him. On May 30, he was charged with two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sexual act.
“There’s a spectrum of behaviour and inappropriateness,” Allen said to Denton of how some men in show business think it is OK to cross the line, adding she too has been through similar experiences to her mother during her career. “I think I’ve experienced pretty much all of it,” she said.
“I’ve had things happen that I would feel uncomfortable talking about because they’re linked with lots of people I work with,” she told Inews. “People who are in control of things that affect me. I reported it to people around me—women—and no-one did anything.”
Although Allen says she can never escape the person who abused her due to contracts within the industry, it appears she’s now in a good place and celebrating her first album release in four years. The “The Fear” singer, who in the past has revealed that she is bipolar and suffered PTSD after her first child, a son, was stillborn in 2010, says the new record, No Shame (out now) is a reflection of life’s ups and downs.
“I had sort of a midlife crisis on my last record,” she tells WHO of 2014’s Sheezus. “Re-entering the workplace as a mum, I found it really difficult—i kind of lost myself. This record is about trying to reconnect.”
The one downside of producing new music is that it means less time with her daughters Marnie, 5, and Ethel, 6, with ex-husband Sam Cooper. “I missed my kids so much,” she told WHO after her American tour. In fact, pining for her family is what
“If I didn’t think I was going to be married forever, I wouldn’t have married”
inspired the song “Three” off the new album, with lyrics “Please, don’t go/stay here with me/it’s not my fault/i’m only three.”
“Touring is going to get complicated as I am going to have to go away for slightly longer periods without seeing them,” she told Denton. “There’s definitely guilt and shame associated with that.” But Allen, who is now dating rapper Meridian Dan, is thankful that she is on good terms with their father, 40-year-old builder and decorator Cooper, who she separated from in 2016 after 5 years of marriage. “Me and my husband share custody of my kids,” Allen said on UK talk show Loose Women. “So we’re a week on, week off, which actually is really useful for my work, because when he’s got them, then I can concentrate fully on my work in the studio.”
Nevertheless, much of her new material touches on the trials and tribulations of family and her marriage crumble. “When I set out to write the album, the biggest theme from the last four years of my life has definitely been the breakdown of my marriage,” the singer told Rolling Stone. “It was really sad,” she says to WHO of the separation. “If I didn’t think I was going to be married forever, I wouldn’t have married. Ultimately, I just want to make a safe and secure environment for my kids, and [separating from Cooper] was ironically the best way of doing that.”
Now Allen’s primary focus is on juggling work with family life and bringing up Marnie and Ethel to be the best they can be. “The most important thing for my kids is to be as nice to people and as caring to people as you possibly can be,” she tells WHO. “To have quite strict boundaries about what you’re comfortable with and what you’re not comfortable with, and to be able to articulate why without being rude.”
“Your life is not yours anymore, simple as that. So your freedom is gone—in a beautiful way,” she says to WHO of motherhood. “You’ve got these little brains that need to be nurtured! I’ve never been good socially: that’s probably why I drank and did drugs back in the day because I found relationships with people difficult. Having kids has helped me with that. It’s forced me to learn about how humans interact with each other in its most basic form.”
“I definitely don’t rely on substances and alcohol in the way I used to,” Allen says of how becoming a mother has matured her and helped her say goodbye to a once more dissolute past. “I don’t take drugs anymore. I wouldn’t say I gave up drinking, because I might like, once in a blue moon, have a glass of wine at dinner. But I don’t party anymore.”