⁠ ⁠Did David Harbor cheat on Lily Allen? Singer’s lyrics about a woman named ‘Madeline’ in new song ‘Tennis’ explained

Lily Allen's released her new album, West End Girl, which has sparked speculation about her marriage to the Thunderbolts* actor David Harbour after fans noticed several songs referencing infidelity. The album, which was released on 24 October 2025, contains 14 tracks about the fall of their relationship. In the song 'Tennis', she appears to name 'Madeline', the woman with whom Harbour had an affair.

Lily Allen, called West End Girl, an "autofictional" recounting of her five-year marriage to Harbour, whom she had married in a 2020 ceremony in Las Vegas. She allegedly found out about his claimed three-year affair, which led to their separation in December 2024.

She told British Vogue:

"There are definitely some things that happened in my real life that are reflected on this record. I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel."

The album starts with the title track itself, West End Girl, which looks back at their early days of romance, including Allen's kids and their move to New York and her joy at being cast as the lead role in the West End play 2:22 A Ghost Story. She sang:

"And then my phone started ringing so I answered the call /And they were like "Hey, you've got a lead in a play / You've gotta be back in London for rehearsals in May / And then later that evening you said how was my day / I said 'I got some good news, I got the lead in a play'.

As Lily Allen sings, her happiness fades away, suggesting that Harbour's attitude had changed:

"That’s when your demeanour started to change / You said that I'd have to audition, I said 'You’re deranged'."

She then goes deeper in her second and third tracks titled, Ruminating and Sleepwalking, where she discusses emotional distance and suspicion that affects their marriage. In Rumination, Lily Allen sings of sleepless nights and her doubts:

"This convеrsation's too big for a phone call/ Ruminating, ruminating, I've been up all night/ Did you kiss her on thе lips and look into her eyes?/ Did you have fun now that it's done?/ Baby, won't you tell me that I'm still your number one?/ 'Cause you're my number one."

Then, in her third track, Sleepwalking, she talks about the distance that was being created:

"Been no romance since we wed/ 'Why aren't we f***ing, baby? Yeah, that's what you said./ But you let me think it was me in my head, and nothing to do with them girls in your bed."

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"Who's Madeline?" the woman Lily Allen referenced in her song

One of the album's most talked-about tracks is Tennis, which references 'Madeline,' where she talks about her husband's dishonesty. Allen sings about finding her questionable texts on her husband's phone, as she uses 'tennis' as a metaphor for sex:

"So I read your text, and now I regret it/ I can't get my head round how you've been playing tennis / If it was just sex, I wouldn't be jealous / You won't play with me and who's Madeline?"

The track ends with Lily Allen asking who Madeline is:

"(Who's Madeline?)/ Da, da-da, da-da, who's Madeline?/ (No, but who is Madeline, actually?)"

By the fifth track, titled Madeline, Allen herself goes over to the other woman, confronts her and asks her about the affair, to which Madeline answers:

"Hey, he is telling you thе truth (Madeline)/ Our relationship has only еver been about sex/ I can promise you that this is not an emotional connection (Madeline)/ We don't speak outside of the time we spend together (Madeline)/ And whenever he talks about you, it's with the upmost respect."

The song quickly drew comparisons to Dolly Parton's 'Jolene' from Jolene and Beyoncé's 'Becky with the good hair' from her song Lemonade.

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Allegations of infidelity and an open marriage

The track Madeline tells us a lot about their marriage. As Lily Allen sings the lines:

“We had an arrangement / Be discreet and don’t be blatant / There had to be payment / It had to be with strangers / But you’re not a stranger, Madeline.”

It gives one the idea that the two might have had an open relationship with boundaries that were crossed.

Sources told Daily Mail that Harbour was romantically involved with a young costume designer. The source said:

"David cheated on Lily. They met on a movie they did together. They weren’t very secretive about their relationship."

It was also reported that Harbour flew the costume designer to keep her close to him. The source revealed:

"David flew her to Atlanta while he shot Stranger Things to keep him company."

Lily Allen had re-joined the very same app that had connected her to David Harbour. She went on a search to look for the woman that David was seeing. She went through his Instagram and celebrity dating profile. The source said:

"Lily was looking for women that were on Raya and cross-referencing them with women David follows on Instagram to try to figure out who he was seeing. She was doing her Wagatha thing."

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Life after David Harbour

After the traumatic experience, Lily Allen had felt suicidal and got herself checked into an £8,000-a-week trauma treatment centre, where she got better later. She told Vogue:

"‘I wanted to die. I’ve been into those places before against my will and I feel like that’s progress in itself. That’s strength. I knew that the things I was feeling were too extreme to be able to manage, and I was like, “I need some time away.”’

Since her breakup, Lily Allen and her kids are back in London, where she claims she is better now:

"Really not in the same space that I was when I wrote [these] songs,’ she said. ‘I have come a long way. I feel OK, actually."

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Lily Allen claims that her album West End Girl, is part fiction and partly true.

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