David Harbour Made An Emotional Announcement About His Marriage With Lily Allen

On that fateful day in September 2020, Allen had been dress shopping with her daughter Ethel. The British star was looking for something in particular, despite having already rented another dress which was whisking its way to her Las Vegas hotel room. Allen found what she was looking for in the back room of a local store: a white Dior number in an off-the-shoulder style.

Allen told Sunday Times Style that she asked Ethel her opinion, and the young girl replied, “I really don’t think you’re leaving this shop without it.” Apparently, this sealed the deal! Allen bought the dress and made the trip to her destination for the day: Graceland. There – in her dress that she’d bought an hour before the event – the singer married Harbour.

And Harbour hasn’t been shy about declaring his love for pop star Allen. In June 2021 the No Sudden Move star told reporters at the Tribeca Film Festival, “I’m in awe of her. I think she’s a remarkable, extraordinary woman and beautiful, talented, lovely, caring…” It’s a fairytale ending for two people who have taken vastly different paths to love and fame.

Before 2016, Harbour was a working actor in Hollywood – but not exactly a leading man. He’d had small supporting roles in movies like The Green Hornet, Brokeback Mountain, Quantum of Solace and End of Watch. Harbour also enjoyed recurring parts in television shows such as Pan Am and The Newsroom.

According to the actor himself, he mostly saw his Hollywood career as a way of funding theater work. Harbour began treading the boards in 1999 and would always return there. In 2020 he told Cigar Aficionado that he was fairly happy with the shape of his career at that point – but with a few caveats.

“I had gotten to a place in Hollywood where I was playing fifth and sixth on the call sheet,” Harbour explained. “It was good – I could make a living and could support a theater career that allowed me to do more artistic kinds of stuff, but I had really given up on the idea that I would be able to tell stories that I really cared about in TV and film.” Yet everything would change after he scored an audition for the show that would become a Netflix phenomenon.

To Harbour, Stranger Things felt like his last chance to really make a mark as a leading man in a project he truly responded to. He told Cigar Aficionado, “I was like, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’m really going to swing for the fences and put my whole soul into this thing.’” His passion paid off, and the role of Sheriff Jim Hopper made him a superstar.

In 2017 – the year after the show’s first season hit – Harbour opened up to The Independent about how his world had transformed. He revealed, “It’s definitely changed my whole life, mostly in good ways. I’ve been an actor for a long time, appeared in movies and had a career where people would recognize me in Manhattan maybe once every two weeks.”

“Now, walking down the street, people come up to me all the time,” Harbour admitted. “It’s just because they love the show and the character so much. That’s a wonderful thing and all you ever want as an actor.” On top of public recognition, though, Harbour said the show had created opportunities for him in Hollywood that had been previously closed.

The grateful star said, “Career-wise, it’s opened up choices of stories I want to tell in a way I’ve never experienced before. I’ve always had to work, like everyone, because I need money, I need a job. Now, I have opportunities to craft stories I want to tell, which is a whole new world for me.”

Harbour capitalized on his newfound stardom by taking the lead role in comic book horror blockbuster Hellboy. He also returned for three more seasons of Stranger Things and worked with Netflix again in the action thriller Extraction. In addition, Harbour joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Alexei Shostakov – known as Red Guardian – in Black Widow.

By contrast, Harbour’s new wife experienced a huge amount of success and fame early in her career. In 2006 the London singer-songwriter released her debut album Alright, Still. It sold like gangbusters and also landed her Grammy and MTV Video Music Award nominations. Allen’s second album – 2009’s It’s Not Me, It’s You – was also a huge hit and would crack the U.S. market.

In the aftermath of her second album, Allen took a hiatus from music and started a family. In 2009 she had begun dating builder Sam Cooper and they went on to marry two years later. Their first daughter Ethel Mary was born that year, and her sister Marnie Rose followed in 2013. Unfortunately, the couple separated in 2015 after Allen allegedly had an affair with Liam Gallagher of Oasis.

In 2018 Allen and Cooper announced they had divorced and were sharing custody of their daughters. In the leadup to the release of her fourth album No Shame, Allen told People magazine that she had found some peace mentally after several years of depression and chaos. Her marriage had broken down, but it wouldn’t be too long before reports emerged of the new man in her life.

During an April 2021 Instagram Stories Q&A, Allen finally told the world exactly how she and Harbour first met. She revealed, “We met in a dressing room area of a chat show,” although she didn’t specify which one. Regarding married life, she wrote that it was “kind of fab. I can’t complain. My husband is a delight and I’m feeling pretty good these days.”

The couple were first photographed together in September of that year. Onlookers saw the pair on the London Underground subway network and they were then seen together at a boxing match at the O2 Arena. Harbour and Allen were also spotted in early August leaving a play together, but no paparazzi managed to snap a picture then.

In October 2019 the couple made their union red carpet official. They attended the Champions for Change gala in New York City together and, though the pair weren’t overtly affectionate, they were always close to each other. The next night Allen and Harbour hit Madison Square Garden to watch some basketball and were photographed kissing in the front row.

Fast forward to April 2020, and Allen posted a “happy birthday” message for Harbour on Instagram. The attached photograph of a cake and some flowers on the dining room table suggested to fans that the two stars were staying together in quarantine. By all accounts, the relationship appeared to be getting serious.

Later that month we saw the beginning of engagement rumors, which were driven by an extremely revealing Instagram post from Allen. She wrote, “Needs affirmation” below an almost naked photo of herself in the bathroom mirror. But eagle-eyed fans spotted the ring she was wearing on her wedding ring finger, and speculation became rampant.

Then in September news broke that Allen and Harbour were now the proud owners of a marriage license in Las Vegas. This afforded them a whole year in which to actually tie the knot, but Allen would drop the bombshell announcement only two days later. They had actually already married in a quintessential Vegas ceremony –complete with an Elvis impersonator!

Harbour and Allen both posted about the surprise nuptials on their Instagram pages. The happy husband posted a picture with him holding his wife in his arms outside the chapel, while the Elvis impersonator mugged for the camera. He also took the time to describe the experience in typically amusing fashion.

“In a wedding officiated by the King himself, the people’s princess wed her devoted, low born, but kind credit card holder in a beautiful ceremony lit by the ashen skies courtesy of a burning state miles away in the midst of a global pandemic,” wrote the verbose Harbour. “Refreshments were served at a small reception following.” Brilliantly, the food and drink on offer consisted of a visit to In-N-Out Burger.

In June 2021 Harbour guested on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and lifted the lid on the moment the actor knew he had to marry Allen. Interestingly, it wasn’t something she had done or said that gave him the all-important final push. Instead, his lightbulb moment came during a conversation with her children Ethel and Marnie Rose.

“We got engaged right before the pandemic,” the Black Widow star began. “Then the pandemic hit, and nothing was happening.” The relationship was going strong, but restrictions had put the kibosh on talk of a wedding. Then a conversation between the two girls lit a fire under Harbour.

“We were riding bikes out in the country, trying to figure out what we were gonna do for the next year, or however long it was going to take,” Harbour went on. “And the little one was riding along, and she was going like, ‘David, dad, David, dad.’ Because the D got her confused.”

Marnie Rose’s confusion over what to call Harbour didn’t sit right with Ethel. He revealed, “And the older one got very upset with that, which I understand. She was like, ‘He’s not our dad! He’s not our dad!’ And then the younger one was like, ‘Well, what is he? He’s kind of our dad.’”

Ethel responded with, “No he’s not, he’s our stepdad.” Though this only prompted Marnie to fire back again with, “What is he?” The former then uttered the words that had such an impact on Harbour. He revealed she said, “He’s just some guy in our lives!” And this made him see that his relationship with their mother had to move to the next phase.

“I was like, ‘I need to marry this woman,’” Harbour laughed. “Because the emotional fallout…” Despite trailing off after this, the point he was trying to make is obvious. The children’s emotional confusion was caused by their uncertainty over the true nature of his status in their lives, and he knew that this needed to be clarified.

Despite the heavy nature of this emotional confession, Harbour still found time to joke about Ethel’s description of him. He laughed, “That’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever been called. ‘Just some guy in our lives.’ Nine-years-old going on 35. ‘Just some guy in our lives.’” The star also revealed both girls still affectionately refer to him in that way.

Harbour even found time to take a playful dig at Clark County, Nevada, for spilling the beans on their “secret” wedding. He said, “Clearly, what happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas. It’s outrageous, right? We went and registered the night before and then it broke. We were just trying to get in and out real quick.”

The star had previously weighed in on his marriage and relationship with Marnie Rose and Ethel in December 2020. While conducting an interview about his ambassadorial role with the charity War Child, he told People magazine, “I married a beautiful, incredible woman who I love. I have never met someone who is so deeply kind as her.”

“I’ve never felt so taken care of and cared for by another human being,” Harbour continued. “She really is just a deeply kind individual and I love that about her.” In fact, he revealed it was Allen who facilitated his involvement with War Child, which helps children living in conflict zones. Clearly, her warmth was rubbing off on him!

About his living situation, Harbour joked, “I’m in a relationship with three women who all have very different opinions of me at various times.” Overall, though, he believed marriage has helped him grow up. The actor said, “Making that kind of a commitment – which I haven’t for most of my life – was a huge thing for me.”

“And it makes you feel a little bit more like a man, to be honest,” continued Harbour. “I just feel a little bit more like an adult.” He then admitted that his newfound role as stepfather and family man had made him feel like “every cliché from every sitcom you’ve ever heard.”

The happy Hellboy star revealed, “It’s a cliché that we make fun of constantly in television and in books and I had always watched it with a grain of salt going, ‘Eh, whatever, it’s not the real deal.’ And now I am in it. That sort of hits it on the head.”

Harbour even appeared on a special Father’s Day episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show in June. He began by acknowledging how funny it is that he’s now stepdad to Marnie Rose and Ethel. He joked, “They’re British and I’m this cheese-fed American man and they really do like the fact they have an extra jungle gym.”

The star explained, “They crawl all over me, they make it their job to try to hurt me as much as they can. My lower back is destroyed!” Harbour then went on to explain how much marriage and fatherhood had changed him. The star revealed that he loves everything it entails, which is a complete 180-degree turn from the man he used to be.

“I was always a single guy, who has been a bachelor for a long time,” Harbour said. “I’ve been an artist. I wanted to travel the world and do my work. And I never really wanted to have kids. And I get it now – why everybody has kids. Because it’s kind of like the meaning of life, you pass the torch to these other individuals.”

“You love them more than you could ever love yourself, and I never thought that was possible with anyone, I love myself a lot,” Harbour continued. He then added, “It’s such a beautiful thing. My heart is just broken wide open, and I have a new love I never had.”