Explaining Madeline, a Lily Allen and David Harbour divorce album song about the other woman

Lily Allen has returned with her first album in seven years with West End Girl – and it’s already become one of the most talked about releases of the year. This is mostly because the new album is centred around Lily Allen and her divorce from Stranger Things actor David Harbour and she has been extremely brutal in the allegations she’s made about his infidelity. It’s her second divorce album in a row, which is extremely iconic. It’s difficult to see where the fact and the fiction start and end. But one part of the new Lily Allen divorce album is when she calls out someone named Madeline as the other woman and the person who David Harbour allegedly broke the rules of their open arrangement with. The album has 14 songs which appears to tell the story of their turbulent marriage. The Stranger Things actor has been accused of having a cheating on her, which he has never responded to.

Whilst we don’t know the identity of Madeline and it’s not good to speculate (Lily Allen’s representatives have declined to comment when asked on the identity of Madeline), here’s the full story of what she represents in the album.

She first crops up on Tennis

Lily Allen across West End Girl alludes to how her and David Harbour begin an open relationship arrangement whilst she’s in London acting in 2:22 A Ghost Story. In Tennis, the first mention of Madeline, Lily sings in its final moments “So I read your text, and now I regret it. I can’t get my head round how you’ve been playing tennis/ If it was just sex I wouldn’t be jealous. You won’t play with me and who the f**k is Madeline?” Truly the question on everybody’s lips.

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The next song is straight up called Madeline. The track seemingly details that Lily Allen and David Harbour had an open arrangement in their marriage where the rule was that sex was fine as long as the other person, ahem Madeline, was someone they didn’t know and there was no emotional attachment and it was kept discrete.

Lily Allen – West End Girl

Lily sings: “How long has it been going on? Is it just sex or is there emotion?/  He told me it would stay in hotel rooms, never be out in the open/ Why would I trust anything that comes out of his mouth? I’m not convinced that he didn’t f**k you in our house”.

The chorus continues: ‘We had an arrangement/ Be discrete and don’t be blatant. There had to be payment/ It had to be with strangers/ But you’re not a stranger, Madeline.”

The song then has spoken word parts from Madeline after Lily reaches out to her in the narrative, and she speaks with an American accent. Madeline says in the song: “We don’t speak outside of the time we spend together/ And whenever he talks about you, it’s with the upmost respect’.

Later Madeline goes: “I hate that you’re in so much pain right now/ I really don’t wanna be the cause of any upset. He told me you were aware this was going on and that he had your full consent. If he’s lying about that, then please let me know/ Because I have my own feelings about dishonesty.

“Lies are not something that I want to get caught up in. You can reach out to me any time, by the way/ If you need any more details or you just need to vent or anything/ Love and light, Madeline.”

It’s all very Becky With The Good Hair nostalgic isn’t it – when Beyoncé’s Lemonade dominated the culture. David Harbour is yet to respond to anything on the album – but he has turned his social media comments off on Instagram.

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Featured image by Michael Simon / Shutterstock.