As the poster girl of late-Noughties hedonism, Lily Allen is known for her heart-on-her-sleeve indiscretions, particularly when it comes to her sex life and former addictions to drugs and alcohol. And the pop star turned actor is now dropping hints that there is trouble in her home life.
'I'm having a bit of a rough time of it at the moment,' she admitted recently on the Miss Me? podcast she hosts with her best friend, the presenter Miquita Oliver. 'But I'm trying to soldier on.'
In a previous episode, she told how her two daughters Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11, had found themselves in the firing line.
'I exploded and screamed at the kids. I was like, 'I can't handle this at the moment; I'm going through so much, I need you two to behave yourselves'.'
She then explained to them: 'We're all going through some difficult stuff at the moment, so I apologise, and I'm sorry.'
For some, a potential clue to the cause of her turmoil came when Lily, who is married to Stranger Things star David Harbour, announced: 'I'm so bored of men.'
In another segment she described Aaron Batterham, the boyfriend of her mother Alison, as a 'pillar of support' and 'the main male person in my life that is great and supportive to me'. No mention of David, then.
Friends of the 39-year-old singer are concerned for her wellbeing. They say she is 'struggling', with one adding: 'I hope that everything is OK between her and David.'
The couple have been here before, as rumours of a split surfaced last year, not helped by Lily's revelation that she sometimes goes days without texting David. But the couple did a good job of dispelling the chatter by appearing in the front row of a basketball game in November last year, smiling and cosying up to one another.
The source explains: 'It was widely reported that Lily and David had taken time apart, but they made an effort to put those rumours to bed. And enjoyed a good year together.'
But since filming began on the new series of Netflix's Stranger Things in the summer, David, 49, has been spending much of his time on location in Atlanta, Georgia - some 800 miles from their family home in New York.
On Thursday's podcast episode, Lily said she plans to spend Christmas in Africa with Miquita, who is a regular visitor to the fashionable island resort of Lamu in Kenya. But she made no mention of David joining her.
Theirs was a whirlwind courtship. Having met on the celebrity dating app Raya in 2019, they hunkered down together during the pandemic lockdown in Lily's North-West London flat, and married in the Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas in 2020. The low-key ceremony was conducted by an Elvis impersonator and the wedding breakfast was in a burger joint.
At the time, David shared snapshots on Instagram and playfully remarked: 'In a ceremony officiated by the king himself, the people's princess united with her devoted, humble, yet generous credit card holder.'
Lily's two daughters, both from her first marriage to builder Sam Cooper, were their only witnesses.
She and David set up home with the girls at a stunning brownstone townhouse in Brooklyn, and she has since spoken fondly of how much she has enjoyed life away from the tabloid attention that her wild life as a pop star brought.
No longer was she paparazzi fodder, pictured being carried by her bouncers out of festivals, awards ceremonies and Notting Hill Carnival - once, notoriously after taking the horse tranquiliser drug ketamine. In New York, as a self-styled stay at home 'mom', she took up cooking and became known for her Sunday roasts.
She's proudly never missed a school run, and commented that few parents at the school gates knew who she was, though they always recognised David.
The pair have doubtless supported each other on their journeys out of addiction. 'Sobriety is a cornerstone in their relationship,' says a source. Lily battled with alcohol, even revealing that David was the first person she's had sex with while sober. He, meanwhile, is bipolar and has admitted to dark moods and suicidal thoughts. In his inebriated state, he says, he was a 'terrible human being'. He became sober at 24.
But Lily has been pictured recently without her wedding ring. Video clips of her podcast show Lily's left hand minus the large diamond David gave her four years ago.
She was also without it when she attended an addiction awareness event in London earlier this month. She has been regularly spotted this side of the Atlantic recently, in particular her old stomping ground of Notting Hill where she is said to have bought and decorated a new flat.
'She is building a new life - her old life,' says a friend. 'But her kids need to be in New York for school. She is at a crossroads.'
Allen admits that her relationship is unconventional, thanks to her husband's filming schedule on the series that reportedly nets him £7.5 million an episode. The couple sometimes go weeks without seeing each other and days without speaking.
Before filming resumed, David bought a property in Atlanta, and Lily was at pains to explain on her podcast that it's not 'his' but 'theirs', given that they share their property portfolio.
Lily often spoke about David on the podcast until recently. In July she said: 'Things are good actually with me and my husband. We are pretty open and flirty.'
She said that she was flirtier with her husband over text messaging as 'David’s away filming quite a lot... I feel like absence makes the heart grow fonder.'
David has said that he fell in love with Lily on their third date, but admits that he has an ‘ick’ - which is her need for him to be around, sometimes more than he’d like.
Speaking on her podcast, he said that Lily will sometimes want him with her ‘but she doesn’t want to talk or interact. She just wants me to be there as a presence.’
Last month, Lily revealed in an interview that after a difficult childhood - she has a fractious relationship with her father, the actor and hellraiser Keith Allen - she has to feel safe at home.
'My kids feel safe. That's the main thing for me,' adding, 'I felt very unsafe in my childhood.'
It is candour like this that makes Lily such a compelling figure. But will she open up on the cause of her current troubles?