Singer Lily Allen recently opened up about motherhood, pregnancy, and abortions during a conversation with Miquita Oliver on their podcast Miss Me? The topic of the podcast was contraception, and the two best friends discussed the pull-out method, the morning after pill, the male contraceptive gel, IUDs, and more.
A few minutes in to their conversation, the topic of abortions came up, and Lily explained that before she had her IUD, she used to get pregnant “all the time.” Miquita admitted that she actually didn’t know if Lily had ever had an abortion, to which Lily scoffed and said, “abortions, I’ve had a few, but then again, I can’t remember exactly how many.”
When pressed, Lily said, “I want to say five, four or five,” and Miquita shared that she had also had “about five” abortions. As the conversation continued, the two women spoke about how they were so glad they could talk about their abortions openly with one another, “no judgment.”
Lily has been open about her experiences with pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, and abortion in recent years.
Lily, who has two daughters with ex-husband Sam Cooper, has been honest about her pregnancies in recent years, but that wasn’t always the case. In December 2007, while dating Ed Simons, Lily announced that she was pregnant. Just a month later, she told the public she had a miscarriage. In her 2018 memoir, Lily admitted that she had actually had an abortion, but had faked the miscarriage because she was afraid of how the tabloids would report the story.
In 2010, Lily and then-boyfriend Sam Cooper announced they were expecting a baby boy in early 2011. Six months into her pregnancy, however, Lily contracted a viral infection that led to a stillbirth. She was later diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder because of the experience.
Lily has two daughters now.
In 2011, after marrying Sam Cooper, Lily welcomed daughter Ethel Mary. Two years later, in 2013, the couple had their second daughter, Marnie Rose. Lily and Sam divorced in 2018, but they share custody of their children.
In 2024, Lily received backlash for saying her daughters “ruined” her career. She told the Radio Times podcast, “I mean I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop stardom, totally ruined it.”
She went on to explain that anyone who says women can “have it all,” aren’t being realistic: “I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.”
While some people were infuriated by her comments, others found comfort in them.
She doesn’t shy away from ‘controversial’ topics.
Lily has made it clear throughout the years that she’s always going to speak her mind, even if her opinions are unpopular. In her conversation about abortion with Miquita, both women expressed frustration that abortion is a taboo topic.
“It actually irritates me, and I’ve said it before on the record,” Lily said. “I’ve seen memes going around sometimes, on Instagram from pro-abortion accounts or whatever, whenever this conversation comes up, and suddenly you start seeing people posting things about extraordinary reasons for having an abortion. Like: ‘My aunt had a kid that had this disability,’ or whatever, ‘if she went full term it was going to kill her, so we have to.’ It’s like, shut up! Just: ‘I don’t want a f—ing baby right now.’ Literally: ‘Don’t want a baby’ is enough reason.”
