Lily Allen and children – family facts

Who’s the father of Lily Allen’s kids?

Lily shares her kids with her ex-husband, builder and decorator Sam Cooper.

Lily and Sam began dating in 2009 after meeting at Glastonbury, and married on 11 June 2011.

Their wedding took place at the Church of St James the Great in Cranham, Gloucestershire. Lily wore a 1920s-inspired lace gown.

Lily and Sam split in 2016. Their divorce was finalised 2 years later, in June 2018.

Lily Allen opens up about stillbirth

Before welcoming her daughter Ethel, Lily very sadly lost her 1st baby 6 months into her pregnancy.

Lily went into premature labour, and her son died due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck.

She hasn’t talked much about it publicly, understandably, but has previously said in an interview:

"I remember when we lost our 1st, I remember thinking it's just so bizarre that I seem to have all these really unique experiences you know, the highs along with the lows.

“From playing on the main stage at Glastonbury to 70,000 people to losing a child, it's just, everything seemed to be extremes.”

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Lily’s pregnancy with Ethel

Very happily, Lily became pregnant again with Ethel in 2011.

She celebrated Halloween 2011 – a few weeks off her due date – with a lovely bump photo on Twitter.

She also shared on social media that Sam called her his' little Fat Controller', like from Thomas The Tank Engine... "So not LOL," she wrote.

Ethel Mary Cooper

In November 2011, Lily gave birth to her 1st child, a baby girl named Ethel Mary Cooper.

She kept quiet about the news on Twitter, but fans quickly sussed that Lily had given birth, once pals started messaging their congratulations.

We know Lily’s quite private about her girls, but she did open up about 1-year-old Ethel’s health battle.

The tot was diagnosed with something called laryngomalacia, which made it difficult for her to eat or even breathe.

"It's basically a problem with the throat. She was working so hard to breathe, to just exist really, and she wasn't really gaining any weight at all,” Lily told Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.

“Because all of the food she was taking on, she was just expending the energy on this breathing process.

"I was scared of losing her the whole time, all I wanted to do was just breastfeed her and to sit there in my chair with her and spend those precious hours into the night looking after your child."

Poor Ethel had to be tube fed for 8 months, and went through 2 operations – but fortunately is totally fine now.

Lily’s pregnancy with Marnie

Here’s Lily pregnant with Marnie, in 2012.

It seems she was very ready to have her baby by the time her due date rolled around in 2013. She revealed on Twitter she'd tried an old wives' tale to help her baby come along sooner.

She also tweeted: “2013 is gonna be big. I’m only planning on spending a few days of it pregnant. Unlike the last 3 years.”

Marnie Rose Cooper

In 2013, Lily and Sam welcomed their 2nd child, another girl, who they named Marnie Rose Cooper.

After giving birth, Lily said she dropped from about 14 stone to 8 stone, feeling pressure to ‘live up to’ beauty standards, which is partly what drove her to develop a dependency on alcohol.

"Part of it was... I was really heavy after I gave birth to Marnie, my youngest, and I lost a lot of weight," she told GQ.

"I was down to, like, 8 stone from 14, which is a lot, you know. I was trying to meet the beauty standards and wasn't eating and I felt very insecure about the way that I looked.

“So being in front of the camera in front of different photographers every day of the week, my confidence was gone."

Again, Lily’s quite private about Marnie’s character and personality. We do get the sense she’s got some rhythm, though.

She shared once on The Jonathan Ross Show that the then 2-year-old was quite the dancer:

"The eldest one loves singing in her cot for about an hour every night before she goes to bed. The other one can actually twerk already."

Lily’s life as a mum

Lily’s not opened up her life as a mum much – in 2014, she said she didn’t want to ‘parade’ her girls around like ‘accessories’ on social media.

We do know bits and pieces about Lily’s life with Ethel and Marnie from various interviews, though, most recently one with Lorraine, in June 2018.

Lily shared that she and ex-husband Sam have worked out a custody arrangement that fits their careers.

"I can really recommend divorce to everyone!” she said. "I do a week on and week off. In terms of my work, it's perfect.

"When I'm working in the studio Sam has the kids and when I have the kids I'm mum. It has worked out."

A good thing, given that Lily once revealed that she found being a stay at home mum a bit 'boring'.

Conversely, has also admitted that she worries her girls don’t understand where she’s gone while working – in a chat with InStyle:

“[It’s about] communication—making sure they know where I’m going and why, and that it’s got nothing to do with them. Giving them stability and confidence.

“I think if you smother your kids, the contrast of that with the leaving- they can internalise it. If you’re saying, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’ so much and 10 minutes later you’re out the door without proper explanations, then they would just be like, ‘But you just said you loved me and now you’re gone? What have I done?’”

Lily’s also been pretty open about her dependency on alcohol – which started in 2014, when her girls were younger and her album Sheezus came out.

She's spoken out about how she'd tried to hide from her responsibilities as a mum in the past, saying she feels she'd been a 'bad mum', or that others have judged her for being one.

"I was being a bad mum," she told Vulture of that time in her life. "I was being bad at my job. I’d wake up on a tour bus in the middle of Wisconsin and be so hung-over.

"I cheated on my husband. All I wanted to do was be with my kids. I wasn’t even making any money."

Fortunately, it seems she’s doing well now.

We’re sure there’ll be more about Lily’s mum life in her new book, My Thoughts Exactly, which comes out on 20 September 2018, and in the personal lyrics of her new album, No Shame.

Images: Instagram/Lily Allen, Twitter/Lily Allen, Getty Images

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