Lily Allen has said that she was recently diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Allen confirmed her diagnosis in an interview with The Times, revealing that she had been diagnosed while living in the USA, where she has resided since 2020.
She told the newspaper that her diagnosis caused her to completely quit using social media – “As soon as I look at it, it can be hours of my day gone,” she said.
Allen also said that she wasn’t surprised by her diagnosis. “It sort of runs in my family. And it [the diagnosis] is only because I’m here in America where they take these things slightly more seriously than they do in England,” she explained.
“I went to see someone and they said, ‘Have you ever thought about this?’. And I said, ‘Well, yes I have.’ ”
Allen is one of numerous figures from the entertainment world to say they have been diagnosed with ADHD in recent years. Other well-known figures who have made their ADHD diagnosis public include Slowthai, Cara Delevigne, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and Yungblud.
The singer is set to appear in her first televised acting role this month in new Sky comedy drama Dreamland, which tells the story of four sisters in Margate. She plays Mel, who returns to her home town having left to pursue a career in fashion in Paris.
Earlier this week, Allen spoke about four years of sobriety had “changed her life”.
“It is weird. My life has changed so much,” she explained on ITV’s daytime chat show This Morning. “I’m four years clean and sober, I have a new husband, we’re sorting our lives out in America.”
Allen is married to David Harbour, who is most widely recognised for his role as Jim Hopper on the hit series Stranger Things. The two have been married since 2020.
The 37-year-old musician has been open about her struggles with addiction in the past, particularly when she detailed her alcohol and drug abuse in 2020 memoir My Thoughts Exactly. According to the interview the last time she consumed alcohol was on July 28, 2019.