Lily Allen Joked That Her And David Harbour’s “Whole Relationship Is Based On A Lie” As She Recalled Their Early Dates
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
In August 2019, a new celebrity couple was born when reports that British pop star Lily Allen was dating US actor David Harbour first hit the internet.
Two months later, the stars confirmed their relationship with a red carpet debut followed by Instagram photos from their trip to Disneyland.
They then got married in a Las Vegas ceremony the following September, and now live in Brooklyn, New York, with Lily’s two daughters from her marriage to Sam Cooper, 12-year-old Ethel and 11-year-old Marnie.
While it was initially reported that Lily and David first crossed paths backstage on a talk show, the pair later revealed that they had actually arranged to meet at a swanky London restaurant after they matched on Raya, an exclusive celebrity dating app.
In fact, Lily even went so far as to reveal that David had used a screengrab of himself in character as Hopper in the Netflix series Stranger Things as one of his profile pictures.
“I didn’t know who he was. I thought he was just, like, a sexy policeman from a reality TV show. He was wearing a policeman’s uniform,” she said during a 2023 appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show. “It was a still from Stranger Things. I’d never seen Stranger Things.”
“When I met him, I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. He was here filming Black Widow,” she added at the time. “He was only going to be [in London] for a couple of months.”
And David shared his version of events in a 2022 interview with GQ, where he said: “I was in London alone, doing Black Widow, on this app, going on dates and stuff. I started texting with her. She was in Italy at the time — we got together, went on a date at The Wolseley, and it was, you know, she’s fucking unbelievable.”
He went on to detail the exact moment that he fell in love with Lily during their third date, saying: “She claims to have fallen in love at first sight with me — I mean, who wouldn’t?”
Referencing his own feelings, he added: “I remember the exact moment. It was our third date. I was just in this phase where I was like, I’m just going to be brutally honest about everything, because why lie? And I told her something about my life, about my beliefs…”
David was said to have hesitated before adding to the publication: “It would take a really extraordinary person to be accepting of the things that I said. And I remember thinking: ‘Wow, that’s somebody I want to be around.’”
The star did not divulge any further information about the "beliefs" he told Lily about, nor what they were in relation to.
And during Thursday’s episode of her BBC podcast Miss Me?, Lily opened up some more about the early days of her and David’s relationship — confessing that she had even googled how long she should wait before having sex with him.
Despite being married once before, Lily maintained that David was the first official date that she had ever been on. Unsure of the protocol, she told her friend and cohost Miquita Oliver: “I remember googling when I was with him, when I first started dating David, like, how many dates are you meant to go on before you sleep with someone.”
“And there was a different answer depending on whether they’re English or American,” she revealed. “I think English was five and American was seven. That was the Google protocol that I read.”
Recalling how she used to initiate romantic relationships, Lily said: “My thing had always just been, like, when I drank, it was like you go to a pub — not even with the intention, sometimes you just go out with some friends! You get really, really drunk, you meet someone, you'd end up sleeping with them, and then either they called you back or they didn’t. That was how my dating experience went.”
And when she first started seeing David, Lily was struck by a stark difference between the American and British approach to dating.
“In America, you date multiple people, and that is dating, and I think that's still quite a new notion to us,” Miquita noted. Lily replied: “Yeah, and also, it's acceptable to be dating several people at the same time."
“I think when I started dating David, he was doing that,” Lily added. “And I remember saying to my therapist at the time: ‘I think he's seeing other people,’ and I was like: ‘And I think I'm OK with it.’”
“But if you asked him, would he have said: ‘Yes, I'm currently dating'?” Miquita queried.
“Yeah, but I wouldn't want to ask the question. That was way too vulnerable for me,” Lily admitted. “Just because we're English.”
“I sort of remember us talking about it on a date and being like: ‘Yeah, totally fine, yeah of course,’” she said before joking: “And I think he was attracted to me pretending to be fine with it — so the whole relationship is based on a lie!"
David Harbour Said That He Knew Lily Allen Was “Really Extraordinary” After He Was “Brutally Honest” About His “Beliefs” On Their Third Date And She Still Accepted HimStephanie Soteriou · July 5, 2022
Lily Allen Lily Allen Just Got Seriously Real About The Way Her “Daddy Issues” Have Impacted Romantic RelationshipsStephanie Soteriou · March 20, 2024
Lily Allen Being Offered The Role Of Her Real-Life Brother’s Sister In “Game Of Thrones” Despite A Gross Incest Scene Is Being Used As An Example Of The Way That The Industry Favors NepotismStephanie Soteriou · Dec. 21, 2022
Lily Allen poses for a photo with her head titled Lily Allen Talked About Losing Her Virginity At "About 12"Chelsea Stewart · Aug. 16, 2023
