Lily Allen says her father Keith Allen called the police after she lost her virginity

‘I didn’t have sex for a while after that,’ singer says

Meredith Clark
New York
Wednesday 16 August 2023 11:35 EDT
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Related: Olivia Rodrigo brings out Lily Allen to sing ‘F*** You’ as Roe vs Wade overturned

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Lily Allen has revealed how her father Keith Allen reacted when she lost her virginity.

The “Smile” singer, 38, recently appeared on comedian Alan Carr’s Life’s a Beach podcast, where she spoke about the time she lost her virginity while on vacation with her actor father, Keith Allen, and her famous brother, Alfie Allen.

“I lost my virginity to a guy called Fernando in Brazil when I was about 12,” she revealed, before clarifying: “No, I am joking.”

While Allen didn’t say what age she actually was when she had sex for the first time, she did tell Carr that she “never spoke to [Fernando] again” after their rendezvous. In fact, the “F*** You” singer admitted that the experience was “all a bit traumatic” because her father had called the police on her that same night.

“I actually went missing,” Allen said. “I went to his hotel room - I was on holiday with my dad and brother - and obviously didn’t come back to my room.”

She explained that she “slept in the next morning” and woke up to police “all over the hotel” where they were staying. “[Police] were literally combing the beach and they had T-shirts like: ‘Is this what she was wearing?’”

“People thought I’d drowned,” she continued. “I didn’t have the heart to say: ‘No, I was just losing my virginity.’”

Allen added: “I didn’t have sex for a while after that.”

Since then, the British singer has settled down with Stranger Things star David Harbour. The two met through the dating app Raya while he was filming Black Widow in London. They were married in September 2020 in an intimate wedding ceremony in Las Vegas, where they were officiated by an Elvis Presley impersonator and celebrated at popular US fast food chain In-N-Out Burger afterward.

Speaking to British GQ last year, Harbour described the “exact moment” he fell in love with Allen, just after their third date. “It was on our third date. I was just in this phase, where I was like: ‘I’m just going to be brutally honest about everything, because why lie?’ And I told her something about my life, my beliefs,” he revealed.

“It would take a really extraordinary person to be accepting of the things that I said. And I remember thinking: ‘Wow, that’s somebody I want to be around,’” Harbour said, before jokingly adding: “[Allen] claims to have fallen in love at first sight with me - I mean, who wouldn’t?”

Allen was previously married to Sam Cooper, with who she shares daughters Ethel and Marnie.

Meanwhile, the “Somewhere Only We Know” singer has previously opened up about her strained relationship with her famous father, Keith. In her 2018 memoir, My Thoughts Exactly, Allen wrote that her father is a “self-saboteur” who “couldn’t channel his comedic gifts into a proper career”.

In 2015, Allen tweeted: “My dad walked out on me when I was four, I’m sick of this. My dad was at Latitude when I headlined and didn’t even come to see me. I’ve probably spent more time walking my dogs than I have with my dad my entire life.”

Following her theatre debut in 2021, Allen told The Telegraph that her mother - producer Alison Owen - has been supportive but she has not heard from her father. “I haven’t really spoken to him, to be honest, for a while,” she said. “The last time I texted him was on Father’s Day and he texted back saying ‘Thank you’. We haven’t connected for a while.”

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