Lily Allen Just Got Seriously Real About The Way Her “Daddy Issues” Have Impacted Romantic Relationships

Just three years into her career, in 2009, Lily opened up about the day that Keith walked out on her family in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

She said that she remembered “the day that Dad left, and us all saying goodbye to him in the hall of our flat in Bloomsbury. I just remember there being a thing of 'does that mean Dad's never going to be around?’”

Despite being reassured otherwise, Lily poignantly added: “Then, of course, Dad did go, and didn't come back for a while."

Lily doubled down on how little she sees her father in 2015, when she reportedly tweeted: “My dad walked out on me when I was 4, 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.”

Lily’s mom, Alison Owen, is a film producer, and looking back on her childhood, Lily shared: "I needed to be seen. I had spent my whole life being part of this scene of really impressive people and everyone else being prioritized over me."

She went on to theorize that Keith and Alison resented her success, explaining: “I think that also my parents… Not my mom, but maybe my dad was, like, pissed off that they kind of gave me the short straw as a kid and then, against all odds, I had kind of gone 'fuck off' and done even better than them."

Analyzing how her parents might have felt, she added: “This isn’t fair. We didn’t give you the childhood you deserve, and we expected you to fail as a result, yet here you are, having exceeded all our expectations.”

As a result, Lily admitted to turning to “drugs and alcohol” because she “was just really sad.”

“In childhood we crave stability and love, nurturing, we don’t care about money or proximity to power yet. Many of the nepo babies are starved of these basic things in childhood as their parents are probably narcissistic,” she tweeted at the time. 

“It can be hard to see one’s own privilege when you’re still processing childhood trauma,” she added. “And a lot of these kids haven’t figured that out yet.”

As she and Miquita discussed their type in men, Miquita acknowledged: “You quite like fatherly figures,” before referencing a “baby-faced” boybander that Lily had a crush on in the ‘90s.

“He was sort of an anomaly,” Lily admitted. “Because I will always just, you know, I’m daddy issues, aren’t I? I just want a big, old, hairy daddy forever. That’s all I want.”

“Right,” Miquita replied. “Because you’re looking for your father? Because my dad also left…”

“Inconsistent,” her cohost agreed, to which Lily replied: “Yes. So, I think that you, yours, was slightly like a fantasy whereas mine was, like, trying to recreate something that existed.”

“Oh my god, you’re so right!” Miquita exclaimed, before adding: “Hence the obsessions,” which Lily corrected to “crushes.”

They married in Las Vegas in 2020 and now live together in Brooklyn, New York.