Lily Allen got real about why she’s attracted to a very specific type of man, and her reasoning for it is a bit heartbreaking.
In the latest episode of the “Miss Me?” podcast, which the Smile singer co-hosts with her longtime friend Miquita Oliver, the pair chatted about guys they had crushes on in the 1990s. Nearly 14 minutes into the episode, Oliver noted the kind of men Allen tends to find attractive.
“You like quite fatherly figures,” Oliver said before referencing a “baby-faced” boybander that Allen had a crush on in the ’90s.
“He was sort of an anomaly,” Allen admitted. “Because I will always just, you know, I’m daddy issues, aren’t I? I just want a big, old, hairy daddy forever. That’s all I want.”
Allen is the daughter of British actor Keith Allen, who left her mother when the The Fear singer was very young. Allen has long been open about the strained relationship with her father, whom she described as “narcissistic and cold” in her 2018 memoir, My Thoughts Exactly.
After Allen admitted she has “daddy issues,” Oliver attempted to dig deeper into why she’s attracted to bear-like dad types.
“Because you’re looking for your father?” Oliver asked Allen. “Because my dad also left—”
“But you didn’t know your dad,” Allen interjected. “So you were, sort of like, filling in the gaps. I know who my dad was, and my dad was sort of there but not there.”
Allen then made a poignant revelation.
“So, I think that you, yours, was slightly like a fantasy, whereas mine was, like, trying to recreate something that existed.”
Despite her reasons for her attraction, Allen certainly married her type. In 2019, she started dating Stranger Things star David Harbour after they met on celebrity dating app Raya. Harbour’s character on the show, Hopper, became a breakout star with fans due to his fatherly relationship with the character, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). The couple later married in 2020, and now reside in Brooklyn.