Lily Allen defends sleeping with prostitutes: ‘I had post-natal depression’

'It’s not really a salacious sex story, it’s more about being very far away from my kids and my husband'

Lily Allen said she slept with female escorts while promoting her Sheezus album “to deal with postnatal depression” amid her “deteriorating marriage.”

The singer shared the story on social media last week after learning that some details of her upcoming book My Thoughts Exactly had been leaked to the Daily Mail.

She wrote on Instagram: “Sooo, in my book My Thoughts Exactly (out on 20 Sept) I detail some stuff from my dark days, around the Sheezus era. I slept with female escorts when I was on tour, cause I was lost and lonely and looking for something. I’m not proud, but I’m not ashamed.”

Allen has now explained that she was “at [her] wit’s end” while promoting the record and was “looking for an outlet” to deal with her deteriorating marriage to Sam Cooper.

Speaking on Ten’s the Project, she said: “It’s not like steamy, raunchy – although that’s what the tabloids have made it out to be, as a ‘lesbian prostitute sex romp’ which I guess it was in a way, but... It was more about a period of time that I was feeling incredibly lonely and sort of at my wit’s end. I was looking for anything. Looking for an outlet.”

Allen continued: “It’s not really a salacious sex story, it’s more about hotel rooms and being on my own and being very far away from my kids and my husband. I’m a big advocate for having no shame. In retrospect, I know what was going on. I think I had postnatal depression and my marriage was deteriorating and I found outlets to deal with all of that.”

Allen finalised her divorce from Cooper earlier this year after they split up in 2016. They have two daughters together, named Ethel and Marnie.

Allen’s most recent record, No Shame, was released in June.