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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Ekin Karasin

Who is Madeline? Lily Allen 'names girl who David Harbour cheated on her with'

Lily Allen’s fans think she has named the girl her ex-husband David Harbour allegedly cheated on her with.

The Smile singer, 40, announced her split from the Stranger Things star, 50, in December 2024 and they divorced in February.

Harbour reportedly had a three-year affair with a costume designer during their marriage and Allen allegedly discovered he had an active profile on the celebrity dating app, Raya.

Allen appears to have named a girl, Madeline, with whom Harbour allegedly had an affair in her song, Madeline, from her new album, West End Girl, which dropped on Friday.

Allen sings, “I can't trust anything that comes out of his mouth' as well as repeatedly singing, “Who the f*** is Madeline?”

Other lyrics talk about a couple who have an open marriage with rules about being “discreet”.

Lily Allen with David Harbour (Jeff Moore/PA) (PA Archive)

In the song Tennis, she sings: “So I read your text, and now I regret it/

“I can’t get my head round how you've been playing tennis/ If it was just sex I wouldn’t be jealous/You won't play with me and who the f**k is Madeline?”

The song ends with the repeated lyrics “Da, da-da, da-da, who's Madeline? (Who's Madeline?)” and the final line is: “No, but who is Madeline, actually?”

The next song Madeline is about an alleged affair and an open relationship.

She sings: “How long has it been going on? Is it just sex or is there emotion?/ He told me it would stay in hotel rooms, never be out in the open/ Why would I trust anything that comes out of his mouth?

“I'm not convinced that he didn't f**k you in our house/ We had an arrangement/ Be discrete and don't be blatant.

“There had to be payment/ It had to be with strangers/ But you're not a stranger, Madeline.”

The song also features spoken interludes from “Madeline” to Allen where she tells the singer over text: “Our relationship has only ever been about sex/ I can promise you that this is not an emotional connection.

“We don't speak outside of the time we spend together/ And whenever he talks about you, it's with the upmost respect.”

Madeline adds: “I hate that you're in so much pain right now/ I really don't wanna be the cause of any upset.

“He told me you were aware this was going on and that he had your full consent/ If he's lying about that, then please let me know/ Because I have my own feelings about dishonesty.

“Lies are not something that I want to get caught up in/ You can reach out to me any time, by the way/ If you need any more details or you just need to vent or anything/ Love and light, Madeline.”

The Standard has contacted Harbour’s representative for comment.

Fans compared the bombshell songs to Beyonce’s cheating diss track Sorry, in which she sings about “Becky wth the good hair” in her 2016 album, Lemonade, and Dolly Parton’s 1973 hit Jolene, in which the country star sings: “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/ I'm begging of you, please don't take my man.

One fan wrote on X: “We got Jolene, Becky with the good hair, and now Madeline.”

Another added: “Lily Allen dropping a whole song confronting the other woman named Madeline…………omg her Jolene is here.”

A third posted: “Madeline – the ‘Becky with the good hair’ of West End Girl – doesn’t escape unscathed.”

In March, Harbour was accused of cheating on Allen with a costume designer. He has not commented on the allegations.

A source told MailOnline at the time: "David cheated on Lily. They met on a movie they did together.

"David flew her to Atlanta while he shot Stranger Things to keep him company."

Harbour purchased a home in Atlanta last year to be closer to the Stranger Things set.

Following the marriage breakdown, Allen checked into a £10,000-a-week American clinic, reportedly in "emotional turmoil" and "highly medicated" on antidepressants.

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