Truth about Lily Allen, David Harbour and the P**** Palace is revealed

Back in the west London enclave where she grew up, and following the collapse of her marriage to David Harbour, Lily Allen found herself plotting her next move.

Having bought a former council flat in Notting Hill – quite the comedown from the stunning, £6million, five-bedroom, Brooklyn townhouse she shared with her ex in New York – she knew that whatever she did, it was going to have to be lucrative as she contemplated life as a single mum.

Lily was also under pressure from her record label, BMG, to deliver a new album to fulfil her contract with them.

She knew she was going to have to come up with the goods, or face paying back her advance, so she had begged bosses to let her write a more cool, edgy album but was advised that if she wanted it to work, it had to be 'commercial'.

And what could be more of a money-spinner than going back to her roots, and 'cashing in' on her chaotic love life?

For, on the face of it, her painful split from Stranger Things actor Harbour, 50, was delivering a ready-made, and highly fruitful, source of material straight into Lily's lap.

And she plumbed it well. Over the course of ten, highly emotional days last December she came up with the resulting album, West End Girl, in which she lays bare every gruesome detail of the demise of their four-year marriage.

The lyrics are, at times, uncomfortably raw and explicit.

According to the narrative revealed in the songs, the couple split after Lily, 40, discovered Harbour had been repeatedly cheating on her and – crucially – had broken a pact in their 'open marriage' arrangement, by forming emotional attachments with those he was sleeping with and not just restricting himself to prostitutes.

Out of this seething pit of anger and humiliation, the song 'P***y Palace' – among others – was born, in which she describes visiting an apartment she believed her husband used to practise karate, only to discover a room scattered with sex toys and 'a shoebox full of handwritten letters from broken-hearted women'.

It was explosive stuff – and just the hit BMG were looking for.

While Lily is said to be 'slightly irked' the album hasn't gone to number one (it was at number four yesterday), three tracks from the release have attracted significant downloads and are riding high in the singles chart.

The effect on Harbour, meanwhile, has been nothing short of devastating.

While he's not named directly, the record has cast him squarely as the villain and left his reputation in tatters, just weeks away from the launch of the new series of Netflix show Stranger Things, in which he plays chief of police Jim Hopper.

Yet, as I can exclusively reveal, those involved in the making of the album are calling it 'a vindictive publicity stunt' and 'part of a carefully constructed PR strategy' and question whether it is solely about Harbour at all.

While Lily has admitted that the album is a work of 'autofiction', and that she used 'poetic licence', music insiders say that far from being written in ten days, it was actually based on a previous album that Lily began writing four years ago, when she was in the first throes of her romance with Harbour.

They'd met on the celebrity dating app Raya in 2019 and married in a 'quickie' Las Vegas ceremony in 2020, with an Elvis impersonator officiating.

Some of the material on West End Girl, insiders say, is recycled from another rejected 'revenge album' she was working on back in 2021.

Many of the songs were deemed too legally contentious even to record, I'm told, and much of it has been adapted and 'tinkered' with for West End Girl.

The source says: 'Some years ago Lily wrote a really, really honest album about men she had come into contact with who weren't exactly nice to her, it was nothing to do with David; this was all taking place when they were deliriously happy. But this is where West End Girl stemmed from.

'Then, peppered in, are clear references to the breakdown of her marriage to actor David but by no means is it all about him, though Lily has been very happy to allow that narrative to continue and bash David.

'She has fuelled it all and she has said that not all of it is real, but it has done little to stop the pile-on onto David and it has been very helpful to make her come across like some kind of feminist hero, which she is most certainly not.

'It is fair to say Lily can be quite vindictive when it comes to writing about her ex-lovers.'

While the album may well be a 'mish-mash' of her past disastrous romances, Harbour has come out worst of all.

In the song Madeline, Lily sings about messaging a woman her husband has been sleeping with, explaining her worries that emotions are now involved.

'We had an arrangement, be discreet and don't be blatant,' she wrote. 'There had to be payment, it had to be with strangers, but you're not a stranger, Madeline.'

She then recites text messages sent by Madeline, who was unveiled as single mum Natalie Tippett in last weekend's Mail on Sunday.

Speaking at her home in New Orleans, she confirmed she had heard the song.

So what else do we know about West End Girl?

Following a meticulous investigation by the Daily Mail, we can confirm that despite one track claiming Harbour cheated on Lily in a 'P***y Palace' in New York's West Village, he never owned an apartment in that area. Instead, he has owned property in the East Village, where, in 2015, hip hop artist Christin Croft fell to her death out of the window while alone in the apartment, having struggled with mental illness.

One source tells me that the title 'P***y Palace' 'is just the kind of grotesque phrase [Lily] would come out with'.

'Lily loves to exaggerate, she loves the sound of her own voice, and she loves to teach people a lesson.'

For Lily's part though, she maintains that the album isn't cruel, and was merely a way of processing her feelings.

She and her ex are in a much better place now, she has said.

As if to illustrate the point, Harbour was pictured at a theme park in Florida last weekend with Lily's daughters, Ethel, 13, and 12-year-old Marnie, to whom he's said to be still close.

According to those familiar with the album, it was 'no coincidence' that it came out ahead of the launch of the fifth series of Stranger Things, which was officially announced by Netflix yesterday to air on November 27.

Interestingly, in the press release there was no mention of Harbour, who has received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role in the science fiction show.

Sources suggest that the streaming giant 'do not want to put him at the centre' of its launch while he is in the news for 'less positive matters'.

'Lily probably doesn't hate David quite as much as some people have made out,' said the source. 'But it has clearly caused a headache at Netflix. Stranger Things is a squeaky clean show which is aimed at a young audience.

'It's actually a bit of a disaster for him but you can hear Lily cackling away somewhere as she sees the chaos it has caused.'

One person staying respectfully quiet in the matter is Lily's first husband, builder and decorator, Sam Cooper, 47, whom she married in 2011.

At first, it all looked so promising. Lily, daughter of the original 'hellraiser' Keith Allen and television producer Alison Owen, had a troubled childhood and had been seen as something of a 'wild child' when she rose to fame in 2005.

There were many well-documented problems with drink and drugs, before she settled down with Sam to raise a family.

'Sam treats me differently,' Allen told one interviewer in 2010.

'He's told me he'll look after me forever. That's what I've always wanted.'

Yet Lily experienced several complications during her pregnancy and at six months, she contracted a viral infection which led to the stillbirth of their son, George.

In 2016, they separated, and true to style, Lily used the split as inspiration for a song, Apples, on her 2018 album, No Shame.

'We were both depressed... Towards the end we were not even having sex... I felt like I was only good for writing the cheques...' she sang.

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Lily's life today is still chaotic. I'm told she has 'little to no contact' with her ex Sam, who is now married to aristocratic designer India Windsor-Clive. It is not known if any of the songs on the new album refer to him.

There have been some setbacks but she has been clean and sober for some time.

And she is certainly busy – frenetic, even. In 2021 she appeared in the critically acclaimed production of 2:22 A Ghost Story and in 2023 The Pillowman, earning her an Olivier Award nomination and a Whatsonstage Award for Best Actress.

She also has a popular BBC podcast Miss Me? alongside her childhood friend Miquita Oliver, daughter of chef Andi Oliver.

However, she last appeared on an episode six weeks ago, leading to some chatter in the industry of a fallout between the pair.

Neither woman has commented on the matter.

This week Lily was looking very pleased with herself at a party to promote the album in Los Angeles on Thursday night.

Dressed in a fur-lined gown with what appeared to be silk negligee underneath, she handed out baby blue sex toys to guests and was seen belting out her hits on the dancefloor.

Last week she had a party at the Decimo restaurant at London's Standard hotel where she distributed the same gifts to attendees who included DJ Nick Grimshaw and model Adwoa Aboah.

Describing herself as 'not yet financially secure' she has high hopes for the album and a British theatre tour she announced on Thursday.

Next year, she will play her headline-grabbing new album in full on a run of 2026 tour dates. 'She and the label are hoping to expand the tour,' said the source.

'Lily needs the cash,' says an associate of hers. 'And sadly, it appears that when it comes to her music she is becoming something of a one trick pony. And this pony is going to be flogged and flogged.'