Lily Allen revealed she slept with female sex workers because she 'lived in fear'

Lily Allen has opened up about her 'very promiscuous and experimental' phase with female sex workers during the collapse of her first marriage.

The singer-songwriter, aged 39, has spoken out in the past about her sex life in her autobiography, but has now revealed why she shared details of her sex worker liaisons.

Chatting to Miquita Oliver on the Miss Me? podcast, the mother-of-two shared that she feared these details would leak to the press, reports the Mirror. By speaking out herself, Lily said she could 'reclaim the power' and discuss her past in a 'non-shameful' manner.

Lily confessed: "During the breakdown of my last marriage I was very, very promiscuous and experimental and I had sex with female prostitutes.

"I wrote about it in my book because I lived in a state of perpetual fear at that time, because I always felt like I was about to be got ya'd."

"I knew this thing existed and that I had been behaving this way and I thought it was going to be revealed, so I thought, to take a little bit of the power back, I would reveal it in my book."

"I did that for two reasons; one, to try and reclaim a little bit of the power where that conversation was concerned, but also because lots of other people have done the same thing, and I think that when they hear someone like me talking about their own experiences in a non-shameful, matter of fact way, then it makes people feel better about themselves."

"And I'm always wanting to do that. I want to do that with my music and to me that is what art is, that is what creativity is, helping people come to terms with their own behaviour that society sometimes looks down on, but we're all just humans."

Previously, on The Jonathan Ross Show, Lily said she had been feeling "lonely" and was "drinking a lot".

Lily confessed on the show: "I'd just been reading a book about addiction and shame and it introduced me to the idea of sex addiction, so I thought, Why not give this a go? ".

Ross inquired further into her motivations, asking if it was about seeking "companionship, sexual gratification, or just not to be alone", and Lily responded honestly with: "A bit of all of the above. And curiosity."

Lily eventually found love with Stranger Things star David Harbour. They started their romance back in 2019 and took the plunge in 2020, tying the knot in a unique ceremony in Las Vegas, presided over by an Elvis impersonator as detailed by People.com.