Lily Allen has confessed she had a different name ‘for a few days’ when she was born until her parents Alison Owen and Keith Allen changed it after deciding it didn’t suit her
Lily Allen is a name most people know, whether it’s for her singing, acting or more recently being the wife of David Harbour from Stranger Things.
But the 39-year-old has revealed she almost wasn’t called Lily when she was born – and had an entirely different name altogether for the first few days of her life. Speaking on her Miss Me? podcast with close pal Miquita Oliver, the pair interviewed US singer Billie Eilish.
It was then that Lily dropped the bombshell: “My name was Billie for the first few days of my life.” This was apparently news to Miquita, who has been her best pal since she was born, as she said she had only found out that day. In an eerie coincidence, Miquita, 40, then shared her middle name is actually Billie, but she is named after the legendary singer Billie Holiday.
However, Billie quickly became Lily when her parents Alison Owen and Keith Allen changed their minds after deciding the moniker didn’t suit her. Lily said: “I was called Billie and then my mum was like, ‘Nah, she doesn’t look like a Billie, she’s a Lily.’
More revelations came out during the podcast episode when 22-year-old What Was I Made For? singer Billie revealed she was ghosted in December by “somebody I’d known for years” – and to this day she still hasn’t heard from the guy.
Opening up about the “unbelievable” experience, she said: “I’ve been ghosted for sure. It was literally unbelievable. To this day, he never texted me again. I was like, ‘Did you die? Did you literally die?’ It was somebody I’d known for years and had a plan, the day of, on the phone, making a plan. This is my address, be there at 3pm – never heard from him again. Ever. I couldn’t believe it.”
Branding her ghoster a “little pathetic man”, she revealed she later discovered he was indeed alive and dating someone else. She continued: “I was like ‘oh’. I didn’t know people still did that. I genuinely didn’t know people did that. What a f***ing little pathetic man. What a tiny little man.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the singer revealed she lost all her friends when she became famous at the age of just 17 when her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? came out.
She shared: “I lost all of my friends when I got famous. Literally all, except one. My best friend Zoe who I’ve been friends with since I was like two. She is still my girl. But she’s pretty much the only person that remained. I was suddenly famous and I couldn’t relate to anybody. It was tough. It was really hard.”
Asked if she had ever tried to get back in touch with her former pals, Billie said: “I tried but I think I felt resentful.” Then in one moment on her 20th birthday she said she remembered looking round the room and thinking her only friends were “the people I employ”. She said: “All about 15 years or more older than me. And then, one of my best friends who worked with me, quit. Out of the blue and didn’t talk to me. And it was the worst thing that happened to me.”
*Miss Me? podcast is available every Monday and Thursday on BBC Sounds
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