Pop star and actress Lily Allen has said she harboured resentment towards Sir Elton John for not responding to a letter that she later realised she had never sent.
The Fear singer, 39, who starred in Martin McDonagh’s play The Pillowman last year, said she had opened up about her sobriety in the letter, which she discovered years after she wrote it while unpacking, following her move to the US.
Speaking on her podcast Miss Me?, with TV presenter Miquita Oliver, she said: “I used to be managed by a management company that was owned by Elton John and David Furnish.
“And I loved being managed by them and I’d love every year Elton would put on a Christmas party and I’d always sit next to him and he’d make me feel really special.
“He would call me like once every couple of weeks to check in and say ‘Hi’ and make sure that I was OK.
“And there was some times in that period where I wasn’t OK.
“And I remember he sent me to his house in the south of France to go and relax and dry out a little bit because I was perhaps not living very healthily at the time.”
She added: “We parted ways just after my third album Sheezus came out and I was very sad about it.
“And I wrote this long letter to Elton to say how sad I was about the situation and that I was particularly sad because he didn’t call me anymore and I didn’t get my bi-monthly phone call from Elton checking in and there was this big Elton-shaped hole in my life.
“And over the next few years, as my life began to sort of spiral out of control, I held much resentment for the fact that I’d made myself very vulnerable in this letter and told him all about my sobriety, and he’s a sober person Elton, so I thought that he would’ve responded to this letter.
“And I was quite cross with him for a few years, for not having responded to this letter, because I’d been very sort of vulnerable and open and I thought it was mean of him actually.
“And then when I moved here to America, I was unpacking and I found the letter. I never sent it.
“So I’ve been harbouring all this Elton resentment.”
She added: “It felt so out of character, which is why I was so upset…. I poured my heart out and I told him that I wanted to get clean.
“Anyway, Elton if you’re listening, which you’re probably not, I love you and I no longer harbour that resentment towards you.
“So you will forever be the biggest queer icon of my life.”
Allen also said that Sir Elton had sent her three cherry blossom trees after the birth of her stillborn son in 2010.
“I’d just to like to say I’m very grateful for all the generosity that he’s ever shown me”, she added.
The Brit award-winner has spoken openly about her experience of sobriety and addiction and wrote extensively about her use of drugs and alcohol in her 2018 memoir My Thoughts Exactly.
In 2009, the singer said an on-stage argument with Sir Elton at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards made her change her attitude to alcohol.
Allen burst onto the music scene with her chart-topping 2006 album Alright Still which contains hit singles Smile and LDN.