Pregnancy & Birth

Lily Allen reduces BBC listeners to tears when she opens up about the devastating stillbirth of her son

These stories are difficult to tell but important to tell.

Lily Allen has been applauded this week for speaking out about the tragic stillbirth of her son George in 2010.

Interviewed by BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour on Thursday, Lily’s heartbreak doesn’t make for easy listening. However, the Mercury Prize nominee has been applauded for her raw honesty by fans – many of whom were driven to tears by her traumatic account of stillbirth.

The singer, 33, has just released her tell-all autobiography My Thoughts Exactly.

Listeners were quick to praise the mother – Lily has daughters Ethel, 6, and Marnie, 5, with ex-husband Sam Cooper – for her ‘courage’ and ‘strength’.

Lily told the BBC’s Jenni Murray: “I went into early labour [at six months] and they put a stitch in my cervix to stop it developing that lasted a week, I went into full labour and the baby was really small.”

“As I was delivering him, the doctors said there was a pulse but then there wasn’t, the chord was wrapped around his neck. He was just too small.’

“I’ll never recover from the trauma of losing him.

“The hardest thing was losing a child, but there were complications with the actual delivery. He was so small he got stuck halfway in and halfway out, so to speak, during the delivery and because his skin wasn’t fully formed they couldn’t use forceps to pull him out.

“There was a period of about 12 hours of him lying there deceased in between my legs. Which was incredibly traumatic… I went into trauma and I don’t think I will ever recover from that.”

One listener tweeted in response: ‘Thank you for being so open about the loss of your baby. You know it really helps to hear other woman talking about their experiences. Sending big love to you.’

Knowing what to say to someone who has lost a baby is difficult, but saying something is better than saying nothing.

Another wrote: “Wonderful, moving interview from @lilyallen on @BBCWomansHour but it was so, so sad in places it actually made me burst into tears. Worth listening to on catch up if you missed it.”

“In tears listening to @lilyallen on @BBCWomansHour,” wrote another, “so very honest and raw.”

@MrsNickyClarke summed it up perfectly, tweeting: “Your interview was so important. Thank you.”

Via Grazia

Related stories