David Harbour and Lily Allen announced their divorce in early 2025. David never publicly commented on their split, but he was seen with a young model shortly after the news broke. Lily put him on blast with her album, West End Girl, which spilled a lot of tea about their relationship, including details about their open marriage and David’s cheating. Lily called the album “autofiction”.
Shortly after WEG dropped, news came out that Millie Bobby Brown had filed a “harassment and bullying” complaint against David before filming for the final season of Stranger Things. He attended the season five premiere in November, but has kept a low profile ever since. David didn’t participate in any subsequent events, nor did he promote his new HBO series, DTF St. Louis. After taking time away from the spotlight, David did a profile with Variety. He opened up and gave his first public comment about West End Girl. From Variety:
In October 2025, a month before “Stranger Things” started airing its final season, Harbour’s ex-wife, Lily Allen, released the excoriating album “West End Girl.” A moment that should have been a victory lap became, for an actor who’s long been open about his struggles with bipolar disorder, a frightening mental health emergency. Months later, Harbour is reemerging in the public eye; he’s ready to talk about it all.
“West End Girl” landed like a grenade. While Allen has said the album uses “artistic license” and noted in an interview, “I don’t think I could say it’s all true,” lyrics about extramarital activity, violations of an agreed-upon arrangement and emotional manipulation set the internet ablaze. (Her case was that an unnamed husband, envious of her newfound success in acting and chafing against the binds of marriage, demeaned her and kept a separate apartment — the “P—y Palace” — for sexual encounters that went beyond the no-strings-attached flings she’d allowed.) Perhaps the kindest track on the album is the final one, in which Allen finally takes stock of her own role in the marriage’s dissolution — and even this relatively evenhanded song concludes, “It’s not me, it’s you / And there was nothing I could do.”
“It was weird,” Harbour says now in his first public comments about the album. “I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that.” Allen has for her entire career drawn on the details of her life and the lives of loved ones. (Her 2006 debut record features “Alfie,” a song casting her brother, future “Game of Thrones” actor Alfie Allen, as an aimless pot smoker.) Harbour, who wasn’t a name actor until “Stranger Things” blew up, has firmer boundaries. “I can’t really say that much more,” he says, “because it’s my private life. In spite of the fact that a lot of people don’t allow me a private life — I value it. And I also value the lives of the people that I interact with privately. I just won’t speak about that.”
The door is open, I say, for him to push back against any claims Allen has made. He won’t do that, but he has one more thought to share. “Stories are complex,” he says, “and that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience.” Besides, he’s no stranger to the transformation of life into art. “My ability to use my experience comes through in the creation of ‘DTF,’” he says. Floyd just wants to feel loved and as if he has the capacity to share love. Harbour, putting out into the world a show of uncommon delicacy, can relate. “I want to make things that make people feel safer. My particular talent is in allowing people to feel like they’re not alone.”
“I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that.” That is a nicely crafted answer. I’m not surprised David took this stance and it’s the best possible response he can give. It’s the Dave Coulier approach of acknowledging that the woman he wronged is entitled to her feelings, and it earns more goodwill than being indignant or combative. I wonder if he thinks he got off easy and doesn’t want to rock the boat because he knows Lily still has receipts.
Oh, and I also chuckled when I read David’s quotes about relating his experience through DTF. I know he was talking about the show, but the title is a reference to the acronym. I have a dirty mind and that put a whole different spin on that answer. Anyway, David also confirmed that he missed the bulk of the December Stranger Things promotions because he was in the middle of a breakdown. It sounds like he’s in a good place right now, though. I hope he continues to be well.
photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Julie Edwards/Avalon, celebrityphotos uk/Avalon
I believe Lilly.
Fuck that guy.!
Lily is gorgeous and deserves better than this guy. I hope her new album brings her the catharsis she deserves.
The album is so good. I wondered if it would be an album I would enjoy for a month or so and move on. But I come back to it every so often and love it just as much every time, and I always listen to the full album. It just draws me in. It deserves to be nominated for a Grammy.
I used to have kind of a crush on him, now he just makes my skin crawl.
I hope he’s in a better place too. I’m not a huge fan of either one of these two. I’m glad that Harbour has spent some time examining his behavior because he sounds toxic AF. That said, Lily Allen has made some incredibly problematic and racially insensitive statements in the past, like the racist picture she posted during her Twitter feud with Azaelia Banks, so I hope she’s had some moments for introspection as well.
@Grant….You…me…SAME 😕
Exactly this.
I didn’t know that he has BPD. So – am trying to look at this through that lens. However, saying that he now wants a private life but people won’t give him that…is revisionist history. He has done several interviews over the years about Lily and the girls. Speaking of which, I’m sure that’s a major contributor in making what is already very hurtful – a longstanding well-engineered betrayal – additionally hurtful to Lily, how sad for her girls (who appeared to be very close with David) to go through this.
I will not defend neither David nor Lily. I do remember that Lily’s brother , Alfie were strange to her. He said that Lily only hinges herself to someone to stay relevant. I did not take everything she suggested at 100%. It seemed like I am attacking first before he attacks me kind of vibe. And also MBB complaint was solved and clarified and she later on talked beautifully about David. So I don’t know .. it seems to me that they were toxic to each other and Lily tried to get ahead of anything that may affect her. I know for a fact that he was devasted of losing Lily’s daughter’s relationship, in many interviews he said that he worked hard on having a good relationship with them. Anyhow it is a shame. It always seemed to me that he bended forward und upward to please her (did you see their NY townhouse awful ) and she never was satisfied.