From cheating scandals to THAT costume, here are all of Lily Allen’s biggest controversies

After months of speculation, Lily Allen dropped West End Girl, a tell-all album seemingly inspired by her messy split from husband David Harbour. The relationship reportedly ended in scandal last December after rumours she caught him cheating. Lily has stressed that the album is not “pure gospel”, and some of it is fictionalised.

Credit: Instagram/@lilyallen

Just weeks after the breakdown of her marriage, Lily checked into an £8,000-a-week treatment centre in the US to keep her from relapsing after six years sober. On her Miss Me? podcast, she admitted: “I’m not in a good place. My mental health is spiralling.”

Lily Allen has never exactly been PR-friendly. From affairs to poorly-timed statements, she’s lived her life like an open diary — and not always by choice.

Her rocky first marriage

She was first married to builder Sam Cooper, with whom she shares two daughters, Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 12. The marriage turned to tragedy after the stillbirth of their son, George, in 2010. Lily later admitted she “went off the rails”, cheating on Sam while touring the US, telling Channel 10s The Project that she had “lost her sense of self”.

She confessed to sleeping with female escorts during her tours, explaining she’d been “lost and lonely”.

“It’s not really a salacious sex story,” she said, “it’s more about being far from my kids and my husband.”

That Halloween costume everyone still talks about

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Back in 2014 at Kate Hudson’s annual Halloween party, Lily, who was one of many celebrities to attend, went for a topical, music industry-insider costume: Dr. Luke as a gynecologist.

At the time, songwriter and music producer Dr Luke had been accused of emotional abuse, sexual assault, and battery, by Kesha. In her lawsuit, the singer alleged that Dr. Luke plied her with drugs and alcohol, then made sexual advances when her defenses were down. Hence, Allen’s gynecologist reference.

Even by Lily’s standards, it was a shocking choice.

That time she had a seven-hour fling with Liam Gallagher

In her memoir My Thoughts Exactly, she wrote that she and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher had a “seven-hour thing” on a flight to Japan — while he was still married to Nicola Appleton.

Lily expanded on the details when she appeared on The Big Narstie Show in 2019: “You know, we met in the lounge before we got on the plane and you know, got quite drunk and then… yeah. It was a Champagne Supernova in the sky!”

In her book, she described the setup for her encounter with Liam as taking place after they “got hammered on the plane”. She went on: “At some point, Liam and I found ourselves together in the toilet doing something that he shouldn’t have been doing, and it wasn’t drugs.”

The dog that ‘ruined her life’

Lily’s dog Mary
Credit: Instagram/@its_marys_world

Just when you thought it couldn’t get more bizarre, it did. Last year, Lily admitted she and David Harbour had returned their dog to a shelter after it ate all their passports — and their visas.

Speaking on Miss Me?, she said” “I couldn’t take my kids to see their dad for months because this f***ing dog had eaten the passports. I just couldn’t look at her. I was like: You’ve ruined my life.”

It was a move which received a lot of backlash, with people calling her out for getting rid of a pet so quickly.

The Zoë Kravitz situation

Remember when Zoe Kravitz revealed that Lily Allen assaulted her and then made it seem like it was consensual in her book? pic.twitter.com/MqJD0SVjTG

— TS (@tennisbagz) October 25, 2025

In her memoir, Lily detailed a wild night out with Zoë Kravitz, claiming the pair had shared a kiss after partying in New York: “Zoë and I went out partying and ended up kissing. I heard that later that same night she’d got down with A$AP Rocky. Go girl, I thought.”

Zoë, however, told a very different story. Appearing on Watch What Happens Live, she laughed off the claim: “If by kissing she means attacking, then yes — she kissed me.”

When the host asked for confirmation, Zoë doubled down, saying “[She] attacked me” whilst slamming how the so-called kiss was portrayed in the memoir: “It was portrayed… like I wanted it.”

‘My kids ruined my career’

Motherhood may have mellowed her, but only slightly. Earlier this year, Lily caused uproar after saying her two daughters “ruined” her pop career.

Speaking on the Radio Times Podcast, she said: “I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop stardom, they totally ruined it. I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.”

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Featured image credit: Instagram/@lilyallen