Lily Allen has opened up about the time she traveled nearly 6,000 miles in a carefully planned attempt to hook up with a fellow celebrity.
The 40-year-old singer recently released her fifth studio album, West End Girl, which offers a raw reflection of the singer’s life, including the end of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.
In a candid interview with Interview Magazine, Allen revealed not just the personal experiences that inspired the record but also shared some surprising stories about her past, including how she once traveled to Japan for a celebrity hookup.
When asked by a reader, “What is the best way to hook up with a celebrity?”, the 'Smile' songstress confessed: “I’ve only done this a couple of times and it’s been quite meticulously planned, so you have to kind of find yourself in a place where the celebrity thinks that they are discovering you, not the other way around."
Lily Allen opened up about a celebrity she hooked up with in Japan. Credit: Dave Benett / Getty
Lily Allen Traveled to Japan to Hook Up
Allen explained that she went to great lengths to align her schedule with the mystery celebrity.
"There was a particular celebrity that I was really after romantically, and I looked at his touring schedule, and he was going to be in Japan.
"So I made sure that I was at this festival and that I would be one of the very few English-speaking people at the same festival as him, which I guess made me interesting," she said.
Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time she traveled to Japan for a celebrity encounter. “Actually, both my celebrity hookups have been in Japan, but different celebrities,” she added.
The Mystery Celebrities and Liam Gallagher Fling
While Allen didn’t directly name the men she traveled for, her 2018 autobiography My Thoughts Exactly alludes to one famous encounter with Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.
In the book, she recalls a wild night after meeting Gallagher on a flight to the Fuji Rock Festival in 2009.
"When we landed in Tokyo, Liam said, in his distinctive nasal twang, 'What you doing now? Why don't you come back to our hotel,'" she penned, Daily Mail reported.
Liam, who was married to All Saints singer Nicole Appleton at the time, allegedly begged Allen not to reveal the fling.
But it was a story she felt compelled to share.
“We got hammered on the plane. At some point, Liam and I found ourselves together in the toilet doing something that he shouldn't have been doing, and it wasn't drugs,” she recalled.
A Pop Star and a Festival Romance
The second mystery celebrity hookup Allen hints at in her recent interview may have been revealed during an episode of her Miss Me? podcast, where her co-host Miquita Oliver recalled a story from the early 2000s.
According to Miquita, the 'Hard Out Here' musician went to a festival in Japan after discovering that her crush, a pop star, also had feelings for her.
“I fancied him, so I was getting mine. By the way, I think pop stars are fair game, like, I don’t care,” she said.
Allen and Harbour split up. Credit: Momodu Mansaray/Getty
On Relationships and the Impact of Her Breakup
Allen also reflected on how her recent breakup with Harbour inspired her new album, which was written in just ten days.
She described the writing process as incredibly intense to Perfect Magazine, saying: “It was hard to make this record. It was incredibly manic, and it was emotionally traumatic. But nothing felt forced. It just sort of fell out of me.”
The project has many pointed references to her marriage's breakdown, especially following accusations of infidelity.
“This record was purely for me, and it was a way of processing things that I was going through in my private life,” she explained.
However, she made it clear to Interview Magazine that the album is not a “revenge tour,” as she had already come to terms with the situation.
“I don’t think it’s that often that you feel inclined to write about it while you’re in it,” she noted.