Lily Allen has taken a shot at her ex-partner David Harbour by wearing a ‘Madeline’ costume for Halloween.
The singer-songwriter released her first album in seven years, ‘West End Girl’, last week (October 24), and she has confirmed that her split from the Stranger Things star was a major source of inspiration for the songs on the record.
One song in particular has been identified as central to the theme of the break-up with Harbour – ‘Madeline’ sees her construct a fictional character who Allen implies had an affair with Harbour, and in the song, she reads out what appears to be a voice note from Madeline to the actor. “I can’t trust anything that comes out of your mouth / I’m not convinced that he didn’t fuck you in our house,” she sings.
Now, Allen has taken another swipe at Harbour by dressing up as the children’s book character Madeleine, the young girl living at a Paris boarding school from the 1939 novel of the same name by Ludwig Bemelmans.
Lily Allen as Madeline for Halloween. pic.twitter.com/NDNSDjAXR6
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 1, 2025
She appeared at a Halloween party in the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles dressed from head to toe as the character, with a blue coat, red neckerchief, straw hat and bright orange wig.
Since the album’s release, a woman named Natalie Tippett has come forward claiming to be the woman that was having an affair with Harbour. She told the Mail on Sunday: “Of course I’ve heard the song. But I have a family and things to protect. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and I understand this is going on. It’s a little bit scary for me.”
Despite her claims, Allen insisted in an interview with The Sunday Times that the song ‘Madeline’ is a fictional character who is a “construct of others”.
News of Allen’s separation from Harbour arose towards the start of the year, amid rumours that there was cheating on the Stranger Things star’s part. Earlier this year, Allen revealed that she went into a treatment centre to deal with the “emotional turmoil” of the split.
‘West End Girl’ was given a four-star review from NME, and praised as “a sleek, smart collection that sees Allen back at her very best”.
“As you’d expect from her most ‘vulnerable’ album, there’s a lot of grief and misery across ‘West End Girl’, but it never sounds depressing,” it read. “Since ‘Smile’, Allen’s always had a knack for making devastation sound exciting.
“There’s rage behind the pulsating ‘Ruminating’ as she struggles with the realities of an open marriage, playful other woman anthem ‘Madeline’ is a dizzying cocktail of uncertainty, fury and empathy, while the gorgeous ‘Just Enough’ is as crushing as it gets, heartbreak amplified by lush strings. It feels like a much-needed purge.”
This week, Allen announced her first tour in seven years – she will play ‘West End Girl’ in full at a run of “specially-chosen” theatres across the UK in March, culminating with two nights at London’s Palladium. See all the dates here and find tickets here from November 7.
