British singer Lily Allen has sparked a controversial discussion after revealing that her guilty pleasure is leaving her children at home whilst travelling for work.
The 39-year-old made the candid confession during the latest episode of her podcast Miss Me? which she co-hosts with longtime friend Miquita Oliver.
Allen shares daughters Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11, with ex-husband Sam Cooper, and now lives with her current husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, in New York.
Speaking on the podcast, Allen described feeling relief when leaving her children for work trips to London.
“Sometimes when I’ve been in New York with the kids for a month and David hasn’t been around and I know I’ve got a trip planned somewhere.
“I’ll get out of the door and just, ‘ahhhhh’,” she said, mimicking a sigh of relief.
However, the guilt sets in quickly, leaving her to add: “But then I’ll get out the door and half an hour later I feel guilty.
“Not even half an hour, 20 minutes, maybe 10, maybe five, maybe as soon as I walk across the threshold.”
The singer’s comments prompted criticism from social media users, with some expressing concern about the impact on her children.
“I feel sorry for her kids. She obviously doesn’t enjoy being a mother and one day they will read all this stuff,” wrote one critic on X.
Another commenter was more scathing: “This woman makes my blood boil. Thank goodness I had a brilliant Mum and not a narcissist.”
Someone else penned: “Is she serious? I hate being away from my kids, even taking them to school I miss them!” (sic)
These revelations follow Allen’s September admission about having children for “all the wrong reasons” while seeking unconditional love.
“I think I had children for all the wrong reasons really because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child,” she disclosed on the podcast.
The singer linked this to her own childhood experiences with her father, actor Keith Allen, who walked out when she was four years old.
Allen defended her work trips, sarcastically remarking: “How dare I be so selfish as to try and do some work and set up a flat here for us.”
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Earlier this year, she also addressed the challenges of balancing career and motherhood, telling Radio Times Podcast: “My children ruined my career.
“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.”