Lily Allen reveals her guilt is “leaving her kids at home” after admitting she started a family “for the wrong reasons”

Lily Allen has opened up about the guilt she feels about leaving her kids at home while traveling for work.

The 39-year-old British singer made a sincere confession in the last episode of his podcast. Miss me? with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver.

Lily shares daughters Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11, with ex-husband Sam Cooper, and they now live in America with her new husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, 48.

During a discussion about guilt, the Smile singer opened up about how much she enjoys leaving her kids behind in New York while she visits her hometown of London.

But although he said he enjoyed the freedom to return to his hometown and reconnect with old friends, he admitted to being overcome by feelings of guilt and shame.

During the podcast, Lily was asked what her guilty pleasure is and she quickly replied, “I abandon my kids,” to which Miquita mused: “Oh yeah, because it is like that Is it enjoyable?’

In the latest episode of the Lily Allen podcast Miss Me? guilt ‘leaving your kids at home’ (Photo taken at the Chanel Pre-BAFTA Dinner in February)

Lily shares daughters Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11, with ex-husband Sam Cooper and admits she enjoys leaving them in New York and heading to London (filmed in 2022)

Lily continued: ‘Sometimes when I’ve been in New York for a month with the kids and David isn’t around and I know I’ve got a trip planned somewhere I’ll walk out the door and just go “ahhhhh”‘ while miming a sigh of relief.

‘But then I’ll walk out the door and half an hour later I feel guilty.’ he added.

‘Not even half an hour, 20 minutes, maybe 10, maybe five, maybe as soon as I cross the threshold I’m having fun but feeling guilty.’

Miquita then asked the singer if there was a ‘slight hum of guilt’ when she returned to London for work and to ‘reconnect’, to which Lilly responded.

She also added that she felt very embarrassed before her friend intervened to reassure her children that she was giving them a great life.

Lily later joked harshly: ‘How could I be so selfish as to do some work and try to get a flat here for us?

The singer-turned-actress’ confession comes after she admitted in September that she was “having children for all the wrong reasons” in a heartbreaking attempt to find “unconditional love”.

Lily revealed how she hopes pregnancy will help her take a break from her ‘high-speed’ career and fix the love she ‘hasn’t felt since childhood’.

Lily and her daughters now live in America with her new husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour, 48, and Lily takes care of them when he visits his hometown of London.

Her father is actor Keith Allen, 70, who left her mother Alison Owen, 63, when Lily was four, and Lily has been open about their testy relationship.

Speaking on their podcast, Lily and Miquita candidly discussed how her desire to have children stemmed from a place of searching for a love she didn’t feel.

“I think I had kids for all the wrong reasons because I was actually longing for the unconditional love that I hadn’t felt in my life since I was a child,” she said.

Lily added: ‘Also my career was at such a high pace, you know high pressure and I’m a people pleaser and I felt very overwhelmed by what was going on.

‘I couldn’t take much time and felt like the only way to stop people bothering me was if it wasn’t about me, it was about the other person inside me.

‘They left me alone but I don’t think I really understood what I had gotten myself into.’

After years as one of London’s most notorious party girls, she moved to the country in 2011 and had a child.

In March, Lily said her two daughters had ‘completely ruined’ her pop career because she chose to prioritize them over work, insisting: ‘You can’t have it all.’

The singer and actress said she believes women should decide whether to put their children or their careers first, and she chose the former.

‘My children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but they’ve completely ruined it in terms of pop-stardom,’ he told the Radio Times Podcast.

‘I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all, because frankly you can’t.’

He added: ‘Some people choose their careers over their children and that’s their prerogative, but I didn’t have much of a family when I was a kid. I feel like it left some nasty scars on mine that I don’t want to repeat.’

Lily previously revealed she had children after the breakdown of her parents’ marriage to fix a love she ‘hadn’t felt since childhood’ (Photo taken with dad Keith Allen in 2007)