Lily Allen Takes Mental Health Break From BBC ‘Miss Me’ Podcast

Lily Allen will be taking a step back from her BBC podcast Miss Me? to focus on her mental health. On a recent episode of the show, which she co-hosts with Miquita Oliver, the musician denied “vicious rumors” claiming she relapsed and was going to rehab but revealed that she has been “spiraling” and having panic attacks over the past few months.

“I’m really not in a good place,” Allen said. “I know I’ve been talking about it for months, but I’ve been spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and it’s got out of control … I tried, I mean, I came to the Christmas lunch, the Miss Me? Christmas lunch, and I had a panic attack and had to go home. I went to see something at the theater the other night with my [friends] Carlo and Claire, and I had to leave at halftime.”

Allen expressed a general inability to find interest in social events, like the 2025 Golden Globes ceremony. “I just can’t concentrate on anything except the pain that I’m going through,” she said. The singer-songwriter has been sober from drugs and alcohol for five years. Allen has also been attending therapy sessions but admitted she sometimes omits details about her struggles. In December, she told podcast listeners she didn’t delve into her recent eating-related battles during a session “because it hasn’t seemed at the top of the list of the important things that I need to talk about.”

Allen launched Miss Me? with Oliver just under one year ago. The pair have been lifelong friends, having grown up with mothers who are best friends. “We grew up together and have experienced all of our life alongside each other. Miss Me? is the embodiment of that friendship; having a cry, making each other laugh and everything in between,” Oliver said when the show was announced in February 2024. “A moment to check in with the friend you love, to find out where life finds you both each week.”

The twice-weekly show will be down one host, but Allen noted it will only be for a few weeks. Her plans for the year, outside of the podcast and being the mother of two young daughters, include recording and releasing an album, which she shared in a recent episode. “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?” she said. “It’s not real, I’m just trying to manifest it now.”