Lily Allen to take podcast break over mental health

Lily Allen has said she is taking a break from her podcast for "a few weeks" because her mental health is "spiralling" and she is not "in a good place".

Speaking on the latest episode of Miss Me?, the BBC Sounds show she hosts with Miquita Oliver, the pop star-turned-actor said she had been going through a "tough period" including panic attacks.

It comes amid reports of a split from her husband, Stranger Things star David Harbour.

Allen said she was currently "unable to concentrate on anything except the pain I'm going through".

"I'm finding it hard to be interested in anything. I'm really not in a good place," she said on Thursday's episode.

"I know I've been talking about it for months, but I've been spiralling and spiralling and spiralling, and it's got out of control. I've tried.

"I came to the Miss Me? Christmas lunch and had a panic attack and had to go home," the 39-year-old added. "And I went to see something at the theatre the other night with my friends... and I had to leave at half-time.

"I just can't concentrate on anything except the pain that I'm going through. And It's really hard."

The singer, who now lives in the US with her two daughters, went on to say she was "going away next week", adding: "You're not going to hear me for a few weeks, listeners."

But despite "rumours" that she was going into drug rehab, she said that was not the case and she had not relapsed.

She didn't say where she's going, but said she is "not allowed my phone".

"They're not doing us any good," she said. "They're certainly not doing me any good at the moment. I really don't like my phone."

Podcast co-host Oliver told listeners she would "drive this ship" in Allen's absence and "wait for the captain to return".

The show, which launched last year, sees childhood friends Allen and former Popworld host Oliver indulge in twice weekly "transatlantic catch-ups, discussing the highs and lows of their lives and the biggest cultural moments of the week".

Allen made her West End theatre debut in 2:22 - A Ghost Story in 2021, and is due to return to the stage in Hedda, a new version of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, at Bath Theatre Royal's Ustinov Studio in July.

She is set to appear in a film adaptation of Virginia Woolf's comic novel Night and Day.

The Brit Award winner mentioned in a previous episode that she was hoping to go back into the studio to record more music later this year.

If you need support about mental health, details of organisations that can help are available on the BBC Action Line website.