Lily Allen celebrates a year of sobriety

Lily Allen has a pretty big milestone to celebrate this month: the official one-year anniversary of her sobriety. To commemorate the occasion, Allen not only took to Instagram to show the difference a year can make, but it seems as though she’s also taken herself on a swoon-worthy trip to Italy, too.“1 year completely sober ! So grateful for my health and happiness,” the singer shared on July 28. In the accompanying photos she is rocking a black-and-red bikini while vacationing solo in Capri. The last photo, a flashback paparazzi snap, is of Allen giving a less-than-flattering pose to the camera to show just how far she’s come.

 

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1 year completely sober ! So grateful for my health and happiness. ?

A post shared by Putting the ‘is’ in Nuance (@lilyallen) on Jul 28, 2020 at 2:28am PDT

Allen has opened up about her relationship with drugs and alcohol before, including in her autobiography My Thoughts Exactly. When she reached nine-months of sobriety last April she shared a similar message on social media, along with a mirror selfie. “9 months sober today !,” she wrote at the time. “And the beginning of an ab is appearing. Very pleased. Still can’t make my bed though,” she added, referencing the unmade bed behind her.Back in 2018 Allen spoke about her relationship with drugs and alcohol in an interview with GQ magazine, revealing that at her worst she would drink a bottle of vodka every day and she couldn’t even tell the difference between a glass of that and a glass of water. She recalled realizing that she had an “alcohol dependency” following an incident in 2014 during the Sheezus tour."My drummer came into my dressing room and he put his drink on the table," she told the publication. "My typical is vodka and soda water. I would drink a lot of vodka soda. I had put [a lot of] vodka and [just] a bit of soda. [My drummer] put his water down next to mine, and I couldn't tell the difference between the two drinks," she added. “It was that moment that I was like, 'This is... this is a problem.' Because I never really had been a drinker before. I always had been a drug taker, and the drinking was an accessory to doing drugs. I realized, 'Oh, f---, I haven't taken any drugs for ages, but I'm drinking a lot.' I was drinking a bottle of Grey Goose a day. It was really bad."In the interview Allen attributes her drinking to feeling shoddy about herself while promoting an album she wasn’t particularly proud of, and while trying to adhere to Hollywood beauty standards and feeling insecure about herself. It was also around that time she and her then-husband Sam Cooper, with whom she shares two kids, called it quits. “I started to just lose everything that was valuable to me in my life," she said. "I lost my house and my kids started to feel really distant and I broke up with my husband and started to realize [drinking like I was] probably wasn't working."The singer added that she eventually fell off the wagon after attending 90 dependency meetings in 90 days, but the process made her discover that she’d always been “a self-medicator. Now knowing that, if I'm not feeling 100, I just stay away from drugs and alcohol, basically.”These days the singer has lots to “Smile” about. In addition to twelve months of sobriety, Allen and her boyfriend David Harbour (Stranger Things) are rumoured to be engaged. “The first rule of engagement club….” Allen wrote in the comments of an Instagram post in May, referencing the famous Fight Club quote about not talking about Fight Club. That was in response to a fan who wondered whether the band she was sporting on that finger in a photo was an engagement ring. Before that fans had wondered if the couple were already hitched since Allen accidentally called Harbour (who has also been candid about his own struggles with addiction) her “husband” during an Instagram Live chat.In revealing that her latest album had only sold 5,000 copies, Allen said, “I’m serious. That’s how bad things are these days. You think you married a pop star? You didn’t. Not that we’re married. We’re not married. I just want to make sure you know.” According to Just Jared, Harbour then jumped in to (not really) clarify with, “But she is my wife,” to which Allen replied, “Yes we do pretend.”Here’s to twelve more months of health and happiness for both of them, married or not.[video_embed id='2003533']Before you go: Ed Sheeran opens up about his 'addictive personality' in new interview[/video_embed]