Lily Allen is sick of the nepo baby nonsense (Picture: Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)
Chart topper turned stage star Lily Allen has added her two pence into the fiery nepo baby debate, accusing the discussion of misogyny.
These days we may now know Lily for her hit singles, larger-than-life stage presence and popular cover of Somewhere Only We Know but that wasn’t always the case.
When the 39-year-old first burst onto the music scene in 2005 she was better known as the daughter of British actor and comedian Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, making her a sure feature in the nepotism baby debate.
For those not well versed in the latest internet discourse, the term nepo baby refers to celebrities today whose career have been helped by famous parents who started out in the industry they are breaking into.
Over the months various Hollywood stars from Gwyneth Paltrow to Kate Hudson have addressed the nepotism accusations.
Now it’s Lily’s turn and she has had enough of the ‘infantilising’ label.
‘I’m called a nepo baby all the time,’ the Brit award winner stated on her Miss Me? podcast. ‘I actually don’t really mind the nepotism thing, it’s the ‘baby’ that annoys me, it’s like: I’m 40 years old nearly!’
In particular she believed the term was ‘almost exclusively used for women’ much like the popular internet phrase ‘Karen’, which is associated with the stereotype of an uptight middle-aged woman.
‘It’s just a word that is basically used for women who are taking up space and we’d rather they didn’t and they should just go away,’ she continued.
The Fear singer doubled down on her female-only point by pointing towards her brother Alfie Allen, who starred in Game of Thrones as Theon Greyjoy – suggesting he doesn’t receive the same nepo baby backlash.
Lily compared the term to another popular online slang term, Karen (Picture: WireImage)
‘I feel like a lot of the time over the past 15, 20 years when I’ve been written about it will always say ‘Lily Allen, daughter of Keith Allen’ and I don’t see that happening with boys as often as it does with girls,’ she explained.
‘It’s always like when we’re talking about women in these spaces.. There’s a follow-up of what it really was that put them there.’
Nonetheless, Lily admitted there was an ‘element of truth’ by acknowledging the ‘class bracket’ she grew up in.
The Smile hitmaker said: ‘I grew up in and amongst people that worked in media, and I don’t think I’ve ever really disputed that.’
Brooklyn Beckham, son of David and Victoria Beckham, is constantly mentioned in the nepo baby debate (Picture: Getty)
‘If you grew up in relative poverty, I don’t think there’s really much difference between Keith Allen and Rod Stewart. Obviously there is, but I just think in terms of your proximity to privilege, it’s privileged.’
For the singer-songwriter the crux of the debate is in the need to work for free in order to break into showbusiness which naturally gives the financially well off an upper hand.
‘It’s only families that have got money to do that,’ she added.
Several celebrities have battled the nepo baby discourse including Lily-Rose Depp, Gigi Hadid and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis is another star who has spoke about the nepo baby title (Picture: Getty)
Although it is a female-saturated discussion some men have made the cut including Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy, Theatre Camp’s Ben Platt and Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard.
It’s not the first time Lily has waded into the debate – when Vulture’s viral nepo baby article first dropped in December, 2022, she took to X to share her thoughts.
‘The nepo babies y’all should be worrying about are the ones working for legal firms, the ones working for banks, and the ones working in politics,’ she wrote at the time.
‘If we’re talking about real world consequences and robbing people of opportunity. BUT that’s none of my business.’
Regardless, Lily isn’t letting the nepo baby discourse stop her career from thriving. Next summer she will play the titular role in Henrik Ibsen classic Hedda Gabler at Theatre Royal Bath’s Ustinov Studio.
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