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Lily Allen abused online over stillbirth ordeal

Lily Allen has been taunted by Twitter trolls over the stillbirth of her son and has admitted tha...
Newstalk
Newstalk

16.01 26 Feb 2017


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Lily Allen abused online over...

Lily Allen abused online over stillbirth ordeal

Newstalk
Newstalk

16.01 26 Feb 2017


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Lily Allen has been taunted by Twitter trolls over the stillbirth of her son and has admitted that she has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

She was targeted while apparently trying to highlight prejudice towards immigrants and Muslims by posting a series of tweets replacing the word "immigrants" or "Muslims" with "pensioners."

Some Twitter users suggested the singer had mental health issues.

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The 31-year-old tweeted: "I DO have mental health issues.

"Bi-polar, post-natal depression and PTSD. Does that make my opinion void?"

She explained that the PTSD came after losing her son six months into her pregnancy in 2010, describing the ordeal by writing: "I lay in a hospital bed with my deceased son stuck between my legs halfway out of my body for 10 hours."

That sparked a string of replies, most of them sympathetic but some abusive.

When one twitter user wrote: "If you didn't pump your body full of drugs you wouldn't have miscarried" Allen tweeted that she did not miscarry:

"I went into early labour and by son died from his chord wrapped round his neck," she wrote.

Allen and the baby's father Sam Cooper went on to marry, becoming parents to two daughters 5-year-old Ethel and four-year-old Marnie, before they split last year and filed for divorce.

The mother of two, whose hits include Smile and The Fear, later announced she was taking a break from Twitter, adding: "My timeline is full of the most disgusting, sexist, misogynistic, racist s***. Really, new levels. I'm no masochist so I'll be back x."


A posting on the pop star's account said it had been taken over by a user calling himself Dennis, who declared he would only communicate in GIFs and was going on "a hate-blocking spree."

Allen gained support from many on Twitter, including writer Caitlin Moran, MP Jess Phillips and editor Stig Abell, who wrote: “Lily Allen has opinions.”

“You can agree or disagree with them. But some people on social media instead are unspeakably, unforgivably awful."


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