David Harbour Told Lily Allen He’d Be ‘Miserable’ if She Got Positive Reviews for Her Play
During her marriage to actor David Harbour, Lily Allen decided to try her hand at acting. While Allen is a singer, she made her acting debut in a stage play after she received a call from the casting director. Harbour gave her flowers ahead of her first performance, and the note he sent with them has raised some eyebrows in the wake of their divorce. Many people don’t see Harbour’s message as particularly supportive.
The singer appeared in a play in 2022
Allen joined the cast of 2:22 A Ghost Story after the casting director reached out to her.
“He sent me the script and I read it, and my husband [actor David Harbour] read it, and we were both just blown away by it,” she told BBC News. “So I spoke to the director the next night, and I was here six weeks later.”
She’d never acted before, so the experience was completely new for her. While she was used to getting onstage in front of an audience, she always did it as herself, not a character.
“The fourth wall thing is completely insane,” she explained. “It’s a completely different experience being on a stage and trying to actively captivate an audience with your being.”
While she looked forward to showing people the play, she admitted the lead-up to the opening show was anxiety-inducing.
“I’m riding a wave of excitement and terror, which is pretty constant,” she said. “But it’s just really nice to be here in this theatre and be one of the first things that people have been coming to see after the weird year-and-a-half we’ve had.”
Allen went on to receive a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
David Harbour sent Lily Allen ‘bad luck flowers’ before her play
Ahead of Allen’s first performance, Harbour sent her flowers. They weren’t for good luck, though. In his note, the actor told her he wanted them to do the opposite.
“My ambitious wife, these are bad luck flowers, ’cause if you get reviewed well in this play you will get all kinds of awards and I’ll be miserable,” he wrote. “Your loving husband.”
In an Instagram post promoting the show, Harbour also joked that he intended to make a pop album now that Allen was acting.
“Very proud of my slightly nervous, immensely brave, annoyingly talented wife @lilyallen who has her first preview of her play @222aghoststory tonight,” he wrote. “Like, that she’s acting in! If you’re in London check it out at the Noel Coward til October something. Also, very excited to announce I’ve been working on a pop album. Get ready, cause it’s gonna suck!”
David Harbour and Lily Allen ended their marriage in 2025
In early 2025, Harbour and Allen ended their marriage. They tied the knot in 2020.
“Her marriage has been crumbling,” an insider told People, “and they have split.”
In her latest album, West End Girl, Allen digs into the reasons for her divorce and accuses Harbour of infidelity.
