It all started with a friendly chat at the exclusive Groucho club in Soho.
Singer Lily Allen, then 28 and at the height of her fame, told me stories about her newfound love for Barry’s Bootcamp, the new fitness craze that had just swept over from Hollywood in the UK.
“I lost 40 pounds of my pregnancy weight,” she proudly told me in 2013, with actress friend Sadie Frost at her side.
“The pounds are coming off, but it’s hard work. I’ve been going to Barry’s Bootcamp for a while now with a few friends. Hopefully I can lose more weight.”
This was certainly one of the most innocent anecdotes a blasé Lily shared that evening – and I decided without hesitation to run it in my gossip column in the newspaper.
Lily Allen spotted leaving the Duke of York’s theatre this week
Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver launched BBC podcast Miss Me?
However, hours after the story was published, I woke up to an attack on social media. Hundreds of her followers attacked me online, calling me names and criticizing me for my “bad journalism.”
It soon became apparent that Lily had reacted strongly and shamelessly posted online that I had made the whole story up, without even thinking for a moment about the implications of her claims.
Eleven years later, Lily, now 39, may have a whole new image – the former drug-addicted ladette is in demand by fashion houses – but it’s clear she still can’t resist letting her tongue out on social media.
While she normally took her attacks to Twitter and Instagram, and even her own blog on the now-defunct MySpace, she now has a brand new platform to air her grievances.
In March, she launched a much-anticipated BBC podcast Miss Me? with her oldest friend Miquita Oliver – whose mother, TV chef Andi Oliver, is a good friend of Lily’s mother Alison Owen. The pair have been friends since they were babies.
Indeed, Lily has been steeped in the world of showbiz since childhood, with her father, actor Keith Allen, always taking her to star-studded events and festivals.
During her 20-year career in show business, the singer has formed close friendships with many celebrities, including everyone from model Cara Delevingne to One Direction stars Harry Styles and Liam Payne and pop star Rita Ora. But despite that, her vicious social media tirades are something her friends fear.
Lily Allen at Glastonbury in 2007
“Lily has had so many friendships with so many stars and they just don’t know when she’s going to show up and take them down,” said one celebrity who asked to remain anonymous.
“She’s spent time with a lot of people and she just doesn’t hold back. Lily and Miquita’s podcast is so popular now. She speaks her mind, which is always something to be commended, but for the person receiving it, it’s deeply unpleasant.”
Just ask James Corden. He was reportedly “furious” when Lily called him her “famous beggar boyfriend” (someone who “begs” for attention in the hopes of forming a friendship).
Lily told her listeners: ‘[He] came on my talk show and started being really flirty with me. We became friends and I introduced him to a group of my friends.’
Even Sir Elton John hasn’t escaped her wrath. In another recent episode of her podcast, Lily revealed that she “loathed” the Rocket Man singer after their split in the music industry.
Lily explained that she was a manager of a company he had owned for a number of years and that they spoke regularly.
The singer described how she eventually left his company, saying she wrote a “vulnerable” letter to Sir Elton but received no response.
“I was pretty angry with him for a couple of years. I thought he was mean,” she revealed, later admitting that she had found the letter in one of her suitcases and had forgotten to mail it to him.
And in April, she took on pop star Beyoncé – whom most people are afraid to criticize – for releasing a cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene.
“It’s really weird that you’re covering the most successful songs in that genre,” Lily said, before announcing during a guest appearance on a podcast with DJ Nick Grimshaw and chef Angela Hartnett a few weeks later that she was experimenting with the genre herself. “I’m just trying things out [to] see if it works. I like country and western music,’ she told them.
And just last week, Lily – mother of daughters Ethel, 12, and Marnie, 11, with her first husband Sam Cooper – found herself embroiled in a row with animal welfare organisation Peta after she admitted on her podcast that she had adopted a puppy, Mary, from a shelter and then returned the animal when it chewed through her and her children’s passports.
The comment prompted a furious response from Peta: ‘You were laughing when you talked about abandoning Mary and ruining this poor dog’s life. She thought she had a loving forever home before you threw her out and called her “that f****** dog” who “ruined my life”. Shame on you. You don’t even deserve the toy dog we sent you.’
Lily responded, writing: ‘People laugh all the time when they talk about hurtful things, that’s perfectly normal. I made it clear that we didn’t abandon her and she was rehomed almost immediately with people we know.’
Even without her new podcast, Lily finds it all too easy to feud with other stars.
She burst onto the music scene in 2006 when her debut single Smile went straight to number 1. She had her own style – a dress paired with sneakers (revolutionary at the time) – and quickly became one of London’s most prolific party girls.
One night I saw her shouting at journalists after a drink or two too many at the GQ Awards at the Royal Opera House. Other times I saw her prowling around Camden looking rather haggard.
Lily later admitted to using the illegal party drug ketamine and told how she had taken so much of the drug at a glitzy London ceremony that she had to be carried and loaded into the back of a taxi in a coma. In 2015, she collapsed at Glastonbury and required treatment from paramedics.
As time went by, she became famous for her nasty attacks on other celebrities.
Lily called Victoria Beckham “fame obsessed” for no reason in 2007.
She said: ‘I just laugh when I see pictures of her in a magazine. I think: “You’re not promoting anything and you don’t need the money, so it’s all about being famous.” I don’t understand the need to just be famous.’
Then there’s her famous feud with Cheryl Tweedy, formerly Cole. It began in 2006 when Lily mentioned the then 23-year-old’s name in a song, which was unambiguously called Cheryl Tweedy.
The lyrics read: ‘I wish my life was a little less shady. Why am I always so greedy? I wish I looked just like Cheryl Tweedy.’
She later wrote, “Cheryl, I don’t really want to look like you. I was being ironic. No one really wants to look like you, they just think they do.”
Victoria Beckham was branded ‘fame obsessed’ by Lily
Lily had a well-known feud with Cheryl Tweedy, formerly Cole
When the Girls Aloud singer responded by calling her a ‘chick with ad***’, Lily wrote on her blog: ‘I have to say it must be very satisfying to take your clothes off, dance sexy and marry a rich footballer. Your mum must be so proud you stupid bitch.’
A former friend of Lily’s says she starts toxic online arguments for “attention.” Others claim she just doesn’t see why she “shouldn’t tell the truth.”
“Lily thinks so much of this celebrity stuff is so fake,” says a friend. “She likes to bring it up. There’s such a facade around it, but she grew up with fame and sees it for what it is.
“She can’t help it.”
The surprising thing is that Lily still finds herself involved in these kinds of childish quarrels, despite having undergone a remarkable transformation in recent years.
She split from her husband Sam Cooper in 2018 after seven years together. She is now happily married to American actor David Harbour, 49, who stars in the Netflix hit series Stranger Things.
In a move no one could have predicted in the mid-2000s, the slimmed-down Lily is now a sought-after fashion promoter – hired by Fendi’s artistic director Kim Jones (Victoria Beckham’s best friend). She’s also been paid a five-figure fee by Dior to post pictures of its products on social media.
And after starring in Martin McDonagh’s hit West End play The Pillowman last month, Lily was spotted leaving the Duke of York’s Theatre dressed head to toe in designer pieces from the likes of Chanel and Elie Saab.
“She’s changed in every way, she doesn’t drink anymore, she doesn’t do drugs anymore, she dresses in the most beautiful clothes and she’s a West End star,” said a source familiar with Lily’s life.
“She’s so classy in every aspect of her life, but when it comes to keeping her mouth shut, she just can’t. She jokes that she’s a motor-mouth and she doesn’t plan on ever stopping.”
No wonder her celebrity friends eagerly await each new episode of her podcast.