I can relate to Lily Allen... dating over 40 is horrific

I've just sent a link to Lily Allen's new album, West End Girl, to every woman I know - along with the message: "Listen to this from start to finish, like an audiobook.

- VICTORIA RICHARDS

Every woman should have this album No 1 on their playlist! Absolute fire." To say I feel "seen" would be an understatement.

Not only does the album cover the ignominy of being cheated on in plain sight in the name of "ethical non-monogamy" - and the simple, brutal indignity of dating - but it unravels the pain of the breakdown of a marriage when you have children.

Allen hasn't said specifically which bits are fact, which fiction, but we know it refers heavily to her split from her husband, the Stranger Things star David Harbour, in February after four years of marriage. In interviews, the singer has said the album "is inspired by what went on in the relationship". In short, as my colleague, the brilliant Roisin O'Connor, puts it in her piece: "We have no way of knowing what's real and what's invented." But boy, can we guess.

We also have her in her own words, after Allen, who's now 40, told Perfect magazine that looking for love is "much harder" than it was when she was younger. In fact, she says, it is "bitterly disappointing". "There's an element of humiliation and shame around it," she said. "The world doesn't portray women of my age as being desirable. And it just feels like climbing up a mountain." "I'm exhausted by it," she added. "And I thought it was done. I thought it was happily ever after, you know?"