David Harbour and Lily Allen have revealed they have control over each other’s phones (Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Popstar Lily Allen has confessed her husband, Stranger Things actor David Harbour, has control over her phone in an effort to limit her phone usage.
The British singer, 39, who is a mother of two, opened up about her phone habits in a recent interview, explaining that ‘the creative side of my brain has been ruined by smartphones’, resulting in her choice to use a social media-free device.
Revealing she and her husband use Pinwheel – the smartphone for kids with built-in parental guidance, she said Harbour, 50, ultimately has control over what apps she can and can’t have on the phone and vice versa.
‘My husband is the caregiver on it,’ she said. ‘So he controls what I’m allowed to have as an app on my phone. I’m the controller of his as well.’
Pinwheel is a smartphone designed for children and teenagers between the ages of eight and 18. It offers over 1,000 apps but does not include browsing capability, social media, or an app store.
The phone must be linked to a parent or caregiver’s account, allowing them to choose what apps are available on the device. For Allen, she said she only has Uber and Spotify.
Lily joked that her child is 50-year-old David (Picture: Getty Images)
Lily was quick to note she also has control over David’s phone (Picture: Kevin Winter/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
Making light of the situation, the Brit Award winner joked, ‘Because they’re made for kids, he’s [listed as] my parent and I’m his parent. ”What’s your child’s name? David, aged 50.”’
Explaining her choice to limit her usage of a smartphone, the star told The Sunday Times, ‘I don’t know anyone who could possibly say that the quality of their life is improved by the presence of a smartphone. I think it’s destroyed us as a species. It’s horrendous that they’re designed to be so addictive. Some of us have more addictive personalities than others. It’s evil.’
‘I don’t think, as human beings, that you’re meant to share ideas and for them to be set in stone,’ she continued.
The Smile singer with her two daughters, Ethel and Marnie (Picture: Getty Images)
‘We are meant to evolve as people. How are you meant to do that if you’re always held to account by things that you’ve said in the past? I said that 20 years ago when I was a completely different person, hadn’t been married, didn’t have children. Of course, I had a different outlook on life. Don’t hold me to that.’
The confession comes just weeks after Allen admitted she wants to be buried with her phone so no one will see her internet porn search history.
The F*ck You singer was asked on the Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wake podcast with Kathy Burke what is the one thing she doesn’t want anyone to see, confessing, ‘Probably my phone.’
She added, ‘My Google search history. My porn search history – Saturday night when the kids are at their dad’s and my husband’s not at home, that porn trajectory.’
Lily said she is no stranger to watching porn when her husband isn’t home (Picture: Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)
‘It always starts quite… unassuming… maybe a bit of shoplifting, security guard – that kind of thing. And then it gets pretty dark. We’ll leave it at that because I really don’t want anyone to know!’ the star added, laughing, when she was asked what her preferences were.
The host then offered her the chance to be buried with her phone with Allen quickly quipping: ‘In fact, all of my Apple devices as well – my body’s not even in there, it’s just full of devices!’
Allen has spoken several times about how she met her husband on the celebrity dating app Raya. The couple first met in the spring of 2019 and tied the knot in September 2020 in Las Vegas.
The couple now live in Brooklyn with Lily’s two children from her previous marriage to Sam Cooper, Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11.
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