Lily Allen says she 'tried to avoid being a woman' because her father spoke about them in a derogatory way

The singer said having her own daughters made her feel differently

Lily Allen has revealed she “tried to avoid being a woman” because of the derogatory way her father spoke about them.

The 34-year-old said that when she was growing up, her relationship with her father, actor Keith Allen, was “fragmented” and that the language he used when talking about women negatively impacted her ability to form female friendships.

"When I was growing up I had a very fragmented relationship with my dad," Allen told Stylist magazine.

“The way he spoke about women with his friends was quite derogatory so I tried to avoid being a woman.

"I didn't really bond with women and I felt jealous of women.”

However, the Smile singer added that having her own daughters – Marnie Rose (six) and Ethel (seven) – made her feel differently and encouraged her to “learn to like women”.

“When I had my two girls I was like, 'OK, I guess you're going to have to start liking women now, Lily,” the Allen explained.

“But it's been a complete blessing.”

This isn’t the first time Allen has spoken about her volatile relationship with her father.

Last year, the singer revealed she hadn’t spoken to her dad for two months since she wrote about him in her book My Thoughts Exactly.

In her memoir, Allen wrote that the Kingsman actor had a "cocaine-induced" heart attack at Glastonbury” when she attended the festival with him, aged 13.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 at the time, Allen said: “I haven’t spoke to my dad actually since he’s been sent [the book]. I don’t know, we haven’t debriefed.”

(Getty Images (Getty Images)

During an appearance on The Jonathon Ross Show in September 2018, Allen said that her father was unhappy after reading the passage from her book and subsequently backtracked on the accusation.

“He texted me, ‘Err cocaine induced heart attack at Glastonbury. Wow’,” Allen told Ross.

“I said, ‘I’m really sorry if I got that wrong but that’s how I remembered it and you never explained it to me in any other way so that’s what I wrote’ and he said, ‘Well that’s not true'.

Allen later clarified that her father had in fact experienced “acute food poisoning”, not a cocaine-induced heart attack.