Katherine Ryan and Joanne McNally have come to Lily Allen's defence on Ed Gamble's panel show Unacceptable, branding her ex-husband David Harbour a 'scumbag'.
The 'Unacceptable' Panel
Appearing on the show, where guests are allowed to express cancellable opinions, the all-female team of Joanne McNally, Katherine Ryan and Fatiha El-Ghorri jumped to Allen's defence. Ryan, calling herself 'a personal best friend' to the Smile singer, was asked to choose between Allen and Harbour.
The only men appearing, Vittorio Angelone and Richard Ayoade, sat on the fence. Ayoade joked: 'Given the faces of the other team, I think Richard and I should tread very carefully.' He agreed: 'This isn’t our battle.'
But McNally's team doubled down: 'You need to take your lead from the P**** Palace, I think he is a scumbag.' Ryan agreed: 'Yeah. Gross. How dare you even ask us this, Ed, about our personal best friend, Lily Allen and what she’s been through?'
The clip ended with a confused Richard asking: 'Can I rewind and just get a very very brief precis of whatever the hell this is.'
Harbour's Response
The couple married in a Las Vegas ceremony in 2020, complete with an Elvis impersonator and a stop at In-N-Out Burger. But after Allen's confessional album West End Girl, featuring songs about infidelity, resentment, jealousy and emotional manipulation, fans sided with her and sold out her tour.
Harbour stayed quiet until admitting the album was 'weird' in a new interview with Variety. '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,' he explained. The 50-year-old was reluctant to delve into specifics, stressing he still considers it a private matter.
'I can’t really say that much more,' he said. '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.'
'Stories are complex,' he added. 'And that’s why I say I respect her creation of art to channel her experience. It wasn’t my experience.'
Unacceptable airs Sundays at 9pm on TLC and discovery+.
