Lily Allen podcast stand-ins revealed after she takes break over mental health

Guest presenters for Lily Allen’s podcast have been revealed following the British singer and actress taking time off from the BBC show after mental health struggles.

Allen, 39, who hosts the Miss Me? podcast with her friend, presenter Miquita Oliver, has reportedly split from her husband, the American actor David Harbour.

Last week, she said on an episode of the show she was “really not in a good place”, and she was “going away” for a few weeks, because she was “spiralling”.

The BBC said on Monday that singer Mabel, Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens and actor and comedian Simon Amstell, who all have connections to Oliver, will replace Allen between January 16 and February 3.

Allen dismissed on the podcast that she was going into a rehab facility, and instead said it was somewhere where she is “not allowed my phone”.

She also said: “I just can’t concentrate on anything except the pain that I’m going through. And it’s really hard.”

Following her marriage to Stranger Things star Harbour, 49, in 2020, Allen has been living in a townhouse in Brooklyn, New York.

Allen has taken up acting in recent years, performing on the West End stage in 2:22 A Ghost Story and a revival of Martin McDonagh’s Olivier Award-winning comedy The Pillowman, along with being in Sky series Dreamland.

Last year, Allen and Oliver won the best entertainment prize for Miss Me? at the British Podcast Awards.

The daughter of Welsh actor Keith Allen, Allen began her musical career in 1998, and has achieved three UK number one singles and two UK number one albums.

Comedian and actor Amstell, known for presenting panel show Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and his semi-autobiographical comedy Grandma’s House, rose to fame on Channel 4 music show, T4’s Popworld with Oliver in the early 2000s.

The duo spent around five years on the show, before leaving in 2006.

Rapper and actor Stephens recently went on holiday with Oliver and her family in Kenya, while Mabel is goddaughter to Oliver’s mother, the TV chef Andi Oliver.