Lily Allen has opened up about having a number of abortions before she went on IUD contraception.
The Smile hitmaker, 40, and TV presenter Miquita Oliver, 41, were discussing contraception and abortion in their latest episode of their Miss Me? podcast when Lily made the revelation.
In the episode, released yesterday, Lily opened up about not being able to remember ‘exactly how many’ abortions she’s had, guessing the number is ‘about 4 or 5’.
‘I have an IUD now. I think I’m on my third, or maybe fourth [IUD]. I just remember before that, it was a complete disaster area,’ Lily said while talking about the coil.
‘I’d get pregnant all the time. All the time,’ Lily said of life before her IUD.
‘Were you fertile like me in those days?’ asked Miquita.
‘Oh yeah,’ Lily said, before singing; ‘Abortions, I’ve had a few, but then again I can’t remember exactly how many.’
‘Really?’ asked Miquita, to which Lily replied, ‘Yeah,’ before confirming: ‘I would say I’ve had about 4 or 5.’
‘I’ve had 5 too,’ Miquita said, adding: ‘I’m so happy I can say that, and you can say it and no one came to shoot us down.’
Lily also recalled thinking it was ‘romantic’ when a man offered to pay for her abortion after getting her pregnant, laughing darkly at the memory.
‘I don’t think he called me after,’ she added.
Lily has campaigned for abortion rights before.
Her chat on Miss Me? comes three years after Lily took to the stage at Glastonbury with this year’s headliner Olivia Rodrigo to sing her 00s classic F**k You in protest of the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs Wade that week.
The pair took to the stage with the memorable performance after it was announced that the Supreme Court had decided to reverse a decision from 50 years ago, putting an end to guaranteed abortion rights and marking a huge step back for women’s rights.
The Not Fair hitmaker has previously opened up about her personal life on the podcast, nodding to the recent breakdown of her marriage to Strenger Things actor David Harbour.
In May, Lily described a sense of spiralling, paired with intense panic attacks that left her feeling out of control.
Allen admitted she needed professional help to improve her worsening mental health, so she subsequently checked herself into a trauma treatment centre near her US home.
This wasn’t about rehab, she clarified, but was purely to address her mental health.
The facility, which offers intensive therapy and costs around £8,000 a week, became her temporary home while she worked through her feelings post-breakup.
Miquita and Lily’s conversation about abortion comes at a time when Republican-led US states are moving to a near-total ban on abortions, which would make abortion at any stage of pregnancy equivalent to murder under state law.
A person who undergoes the procedure could face life in prison or the death penalty as a result.
In the UK, MPs recently made a historic move, voting to finally decriminalise abortion in England and Wales after 60 long years.
It represents a ‘monumental change to our abortion law’, Katherine O’Brien, from the leading abortion provider BPAS, told Metro of the ruling.
However, she also explained why it’s needed.
‘Increasingly, women are being investigated by police under suspicion of illegally ending their own pregnancy, and this includes women who’ve experienced miscarriages, stillbirth and access to legal care, and the impact that can have on their lives, their family, is unimaginable,’ O’Brien said.
‘This vote will mean that will come to an end, and that is a huge, huge achievement.’
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