Lily Allen to take podcast break over mental health

PA

Lily Allen has said she is taking a break from her podcast for "a few weeks" because her mental health is "spiralling" and she is not "in a good place".

Speaking on the latest episode of Miss Me?, the BBC Sounds show she hosts with Miquita Oliver, the pop star-turned-actor said she had been going through a "tough period" including panic attacks.

It comes amid reports of a split from her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour.

Allen said she was currently "unable to concentrate on anything except the pain I'm going through".

Reuters

"I'm finding it hard to be interested in anything. I'm really not in a good place," she said on Thursday's episode.

"I know I've been talking about it for months, but I've been spiralling and spiralling and spiralling, and it's got out of control. I've tried.

"I came to the Miss Me? Christmas lunch and had a panic attack and had to go home," the 39-year-old added. "And I went to see something at the theatre the other night with my friends... and I had to leave at half-time.

"I just can't concentrate on anything except the pain that I'm going through. And It's really hard."

The singer, who now lives in the US, went on to say she was "going away next week", adding: "You're not going to hear me for a few weeks, listeners."

But despite "rumours" that she was going into drug rehab, she said that was not the case and she had not relapsed.

She didn't say where she's going, but said she is "not allowed my phone".

"This is the one thing I'm very excited about where I'm going the next few weeks, is that I'm not allowed my phone," added the performer who has been critical of the effects of social media.

Allen also said her two daughters - whom she shares with her ex-husband Sam Cooper and recently went on safari with - had been a great help of late.

"It's really tough - they are always there and you have to be present and there for them," she said.

"And that's OK. When things in life are going well and swimmingly and you're coping, it's really nice to have the kids around - they're a joy to be around, in fact one of the main sources of joy in one's life.

"But when things are not going so well and life is tough - as it is for many people for all manner of reasons - having to hold things together is really hard."

Co-host Oliver told listeners she would "drive this ship" in Allen's absence and "wait for the captain to return".

The BBC Sounds podcast, which launched last year, sees childhood friends Allen former and former Popworld host Oliver indulge in twice weekly "transatlantic catch-ups, discussing the highs and lows of their lives and the biggest cultural moments of the week".

Allen made her West End theatre debut in 2:22 - A Ghost Story in 2021, and is due to return to the stage in Hedda, a new version of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, at Bath Theatre Royal's Ustinov Studio in July.

She is also reportedly filming a screen adaptation of Virginia Woolf's comic novel Night and Day.

The Brit Award winner mentioned in a previous episode that she was hoping to go back into the studio to record more music later this year.