But the 51-year-old Harbour is also being very careful about what he says about “West End Girl,” the 2025 album by ex-wife Lily Allen, 41, in which she goes scorched-Earth against an unnamed man who violates agreements they made together.
Harbour previously avoided commenting on the split, telling GQ in April that “there’s no use in that form of engaging [with tabloid news] because it’s all based on hysterical hyperbole.”
He also said kissing and telling about Allen would just add to “a salacious shitshow of humiliation.”
A few months later, Harbour is more open to discussing the album, but chose his words carefully in his Variety interview, especially about how it felt to be the supposed inspiration for Allen’s critically acclaimed recording.
“It was weird,” Harbour admitted, before taking the high road about respecting the artistic process. “I do believe that it is the privilege of every artist to use their experience to create art, and so I respect her for doing that.”
Harbour said he really couldn’t “say that much more because it’s my private life. In spite of the fact that a lot of people don’t allow me a private life — I value it. And I also value the lives of the people that I interact with privately. I just won’t speak about that.”
Although Variety gave Harbour a chance to correct the record on any claims made by Allen on her album or comment like the one she made in March on her podcast that men like “young dumb” women and will “leave you for a 20-year-old” when the physical attraction fades.
“Stories are complex,” he said. “And that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience.”