The 37-year-old musician speaks up after New York magazine published a 'Year of the Nepo Baby' cover story, which featured Dakota Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp and many more.
- Dec 21, 2022
AceShowbiz - Lily Allen has fired back at backlash over her comments defending "nepo babies" in Hollywood. Having faced criticism for saying people "should be worrying about" nepo babies working in legal, political and financial spheres, the singer turned to Twitter to double down on her stance.
It all started after the 37-year-old addressed New York magazine's "Year of the Nepo Baby" cover story, which featured Dakota Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Ben Platt, Zoe Kravitz and more. She tweeted, "The nepo babies y'all should be worrying about are the ones working for legal firms,the ones working for banks,and the ones working in politics, If we're talking about real world consequences and robbing people of opportunity. BUT that's none of my business."
"And before you come at me for being a nepo baby myself, I will be the first to tell you that I literally deserve nothing.," the daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen added. "I'm a nepo baby, and both my parents are super talented."
"In childhood we crave stability and love, nurturing," she further shared. "We don't care about money or proximity to power yet. Many of the nepo babies are starved of these basic things in childhood as their parents are probably narcissistic."
The statements didn't sit well with many Twitter users, prompting her to declare in another tweet, "Look, I seem to have riled people up with my comments about nepo babies. I am nearly 40 years of age and am more than happy." She added, "In fact I think it's important to disclose what a privileged upbringing I've had and how that has created so many opportunities for me."
"I mention my age because I haven't always been able to have that conversation, in my twenties I felt very defensive about it, I felt like I worked extremely hard and that I deserved the success that I had," she elaborated. "That people connected to my songs and that the songs came from me."
"I also had quite a fraught relationship with some of my family members so it felt difficult for me to attribute my successes to them, at the time," the Grammy nominee went on noting. "But we all know it's more complicated than that. It is quite clear that there is a severe lack of representation in the industry where class and race are concerned. Everyone loses as a result."
Suggesting that "nepo babies are being somewhat scapegoated," Lily added, "There is a wider, societal conversation to be had about wealth inequality, about lack of programs and funding." She, however, made it clear that she's not "rooting for an industry full of people that had childhoods that looked like mine."
