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When the singer spoke about the effect her kids had on her work, her comments rang true for women, says Maria Lally
LAST WEEK THE 38-year-old singer Lily Allen said something many mothers might occasionally think, but rarely say out loud: that having children ruins your career.
Speaking on the Radio Times podcast about her two daughters, 11-year-old Ethel and nine-year-old Marnie, she said, ‘Yes, my children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but in terms of pop stardom, they totally ruined it.’
Allen, who shares her daughters with ex-husband Sam Cooper, added, ‘I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t. Some people choose their career over their children and that’s their prerogative, but my parents were quite absent when I was a kid. I feel like it left some nasty scars that I’m not willing to repeat on mine. I chose to step back and concentrate on them. I’m glad that I’ve done that because I think they’re pretty well-rounded.’
Having risen to fame in 2006 with her number one single Smile, she has since pivoted to acting and appeared in London’s West End and last year starred in the Sky Atlantic comedy Dreamland, set in the seaside town of Margate in Kent. Now married to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, and living in New York, it would be easy to assume the average British mother has little in common with Allen.
But in truth she has more than she might realise. Figures released by the ONS (Office of National Statistics) in 2022 found that 43,000 women left the workplace to look after children the previous year. While in 2023, the consultancy group PwC found that the UK is slipping down in the international league table for women in work.
‘The motherhood penalty is now the most significant driver of the gender pay gap and, in the UK, women are being hit even harder by the rising cost of living and increasing cost of ch
