To be a bit stunned by Lily Allen’s new album

I suppose, given that she rose to prominence on Myspace, she could be an interesting case study on the impact of social media on the blurring of public and private. There have always been confessional songwriters, but I think she goes beyond that. I'm also not a great fan of the idea that 'telling like it is' or 'being brutally honest' are necessarily strengths.

No, true, 20 is still fairly young. How old was she when she wrote her book, told us about the amount of abortions, showed the cameras around her home etc?

There are famous actors etc with children who keep them and theirselves out of the limelight as much as possible and don't talk about private lives. Seems to be a lot of famous people with minimum talent seem to think that any column inches is better than none and then they cannot complain if the press interest/intrusion becomes uncomfortable imo.

I enjoyed all her previous albums and sure will enjoy this one.

She's awful, but you have to admire that she doesn't attempt to conceal it! I've just listened and I have to say I think it's very very good 😳

Christ, the pearl-clutching and judgement on this thread! I’ve listened to the album twice now and think it’s a masterpiece. Each to their own.

I find it incredibly sad and to be honest, disturbing.

I went through a phase of binging on her podcast. She's pretty open that she has serious daddy issues.

Sure. However, she was very young, around 20, when she became famous, and I think that most of us are not making our best decisions at that point in our lives.

What?! It's an awful medical procedure that's unnecessary if you are a responsible adult and use birth control!
There's a cost to your body and to the NHS, though I suppose Lily wouldn't consider that.

To me, Lily comes across as a bit grubby, not very intelligent but streetwise, witty and funny. I like her music and lyrics, she is not a great singer but her tunes are cute and catchy and her lyrics stunningly down to earth and, erm frank, always make me laugh in disbelieve at what she is saying. I think she has some really good songs.

I could never understand why she is always with these tall older looking guys, all of her partners looked really strange next to her. Always made me think she is after a daddy figure. I don't follow her in any way and have no idea what she said on whatever podcast, and I have no interest in it tbh. I would imagine she talks a lot of rubbish as she is not exactly Brains of Britain.

Re her new album - will definitely have a listen, good on her!

I’ve always detested Keith Allen. What a cunt.

Who's 'we'?

Lots of people, if not you or LA, think abortion is the killing of a baby and wrong and therefore find doing it lots and laughing about it is gross.

If she didn't want to be judged on this she shouldn't talk about something so emotive to many people so publically and then complan they judge you.

It's incredible how some people just presume everyone must agree with them and thier lifestyle and are so suprised when they find this is not the case.

Lots of people also think cheating on your chldren's father with sex workers then having more choatic relationships which breakdown and where you publically talk about your wapred sex life is a damagig and emotionbally abusive way to bring up your children and makes you a shit parent and not the victim in this scenario.

'We' don't all think the same.

imho, this is a marketing strategy: she sees Taylor Swift's success on the back of the same lyric-driven music focused mostly on dissing her exes and the pound sign dings!

Fame and fortune is dancing with the devil am afraid. Can't control it so it only applies where you want it. Saying that, tabloid media is disgusting.

And she had not long before given birth to a stillborn child in the full glare of the tabloid media (in her autobiography she describes how journalists were calling her as the dying baby was stuck in the birth canal), immeditely after that she had two children in quick succession (one of who was extremely ill at birth) and then had to write, record and tour an album, away from her kids, in order to stop her house being sold to pay the taxman (and then had to sell the house anyway). I mean, apart from anything else, judging her by the same standards as you judge someone not living in that spotlight of fame and trauma is a bit silly and simplistic.

That pharmacist should've been reported imo.

The rest of your post, am not sure why relevant to the abortion as a regular method of birth control costs? If your pregnant, giving birth or poorly and needing NHS help that's what it's there for isn't it?

The judgement on this thread is really unpleasant! Lily is an actual human being and perhaps we don’t need to be quite so awful about her? You don’t know her personally so maybe don’t judge someone until you’ve walked in their shoes?

I think she’s been through a lot and has been treated absolutely horrifically by people she should have been able to trust. I also think she’s very, very talented and I love her honesty.

I’d just have more sympathy for her if she hadn’t admitted to cheating, repeatedly, on her former husband with multiple men and women. In her autobiography, she didn’t seem to accept full responsibility for her own actions, instead blaming much of it on her ex husband Sam Cooper for not ‘looking after’ her - at least, that’s how I read it. Mixed feelings really.

Or...their mother is an artist who has been through some genuinely traumatic things and used them to make a stunningly original and striking piece of art that will no doubt get global interest and acclaim? Hopefully, they will be proud of that.

You’ve lost me there OP. What a disturbing way to look at abortion. I no fan of Lily Allen and I think this is going to come back and bite her in the arse. She’s not exactly treated her partners with respect over the years. It’s her children I really feel for. All this out in the open. They have lost a stepfather and their mum is making a spectacle of their broken home to sell some records. It’s all so grubby.

Do people still use diaphragms? There's femidoms or the copper coil as well (I've got one and had it fitted under general anesthetic because my pain threshold is shite.)

I've had the morning after pill, I asked for it on the NHS and the (older, male) pharmacist got cross with me and said it would cost the NHS money. Not as much as having an abortion, and definitely not as much as having a baby! Wonder how much me and DS have cost the NHS so far! (C section, SCBU, week in hospital, he had an MRI earlier this year, etc.)

I felt really sad for them both after listening to the album. What a fucking mess. And her kids, too. Awful for them. Poor Lily seems to careen from one trauma to another — her judgment seems extremely off. I thought when she first started dating and married David Harbor that this was her stepping into a car crash, and their Brownstone AD video only solidified that feeling, with him acting the self-centred dick and her skeletal and simpering behind him. I actually like her and think she is a very talented writer and artist, who genuinely has had a really rough time of life and is obviously not well for much of the time. I hope she finds peace and a way to break the cycle.

Eh?? Contraception? An abortion isn't contraception.

It’s not contraception though is it? In 25 years of sex she could’ve got pregnant hundreds of times

She’s loathsome. Not many people I hate but being horrible to a rescue dog is grotesque.