How Lily Allen and David Harbour met on the relationship app that may finish their marriage: Pop star was ‘solely swiping for enjoyable’ earlier than discovering actor dressed as a ‘horny policeman’ amid rumours he returned to Raya and ‘cheated’

Lily Allen doubted her relationship with husband David Harbour from the very start after meeting him on celebrity dating app Raya.

In a past appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, Lily said she was only ‘swiping for a bit of fun’ before she came across David dressed as a ‘sexy policeman’.

Lily met David on Raya in 2019 and they both deleted their accounts after enjoying a whirlwind romance, marrying in Las Vegas a year later.

Her past comments come as Lily, 39, turned amateur sleuth after speculating David, 49, ‘cheated’ on the same dating app.

She said: ‘It was the first time I’d been on this dating app. I was scrolling through and landed on David’s profile and pressed accept.

‘I didn’t know who he was. I thought he was just like a sexy policeman from a reality TV show because he was wearing a policeman’s uniform. It was a still from Stranger Things. I’d never seen Stranger Things.

‘I don’t even know what I was looking for. It was just something to do on holiday, swiping, it’s a bit of fun.

‘When I met him I didn’t think it was going to go anywhere. He was here filming Black Widow. He was only going to be here for a couple of months. And then it did [go somewhere].’

Lily was left in ‘agony’ when she discovered the actor had a secret profile on the celebrity dating app, The Mail on Sunday revealed.

The pop star played detective by joining the app herself, pretending to be ‘looking for women’ – and found that David had already set up a dating profile. He was listed on the app as being active for at least a month.

Raya is so exclusive that it accepts only around 8 per cent of applicants, but it has more than 10,000 members, with 100,000 on the waiting list.  Once users find a new partner, they usually disable their profile.

A source said: ‘Lily was looking for women that were on Raya and cross-referencing them with women David follows on Instagram to try to figure out who he was seeing. She was doing her Wagatha thing.’

A source told The Mail on Sunday on Saturday: ‘Lily only rejoined Raya to try to figure out whether he was seeing someone.

‘Lily has never even looked at anyone since she met David. She is devastated. He broke up with Lily a month ago. He was meant to be on holiday with her in Kenya over Christmas.’ 

The singer has not made any public statements on her relationship with David since it emerged they had parted ways last month, but a friend of the Smile hitmaker confirmed that they had officially ‘separated’.

David’s dating profile, exclusively revealed by the MoS, reads: ‘Visiting New York from Atlanta’ and ‘closet nerd that plays tough guys on your TV’.

He lists his profile song as the Houses Of The Holy by Led Zeppelin.

David describes himself as living in Atlanta, Georgia, 800 miles from the family home in Brooklyn, New York, where the couple moved in 2020, with Allen enrolling her children in local schools. 

He bought a house in Atlanta last year, so he could be closer to the Stranger Things set.

The show is currently filming its fifth and final series. Lily’s circle of London friends say she has believed since the autumn that her husband is interested in other women.

By the time the couple broke up about a month ago, she had become convinced that he had a secret girlfriend.

A source said: ‘Lily is of the belief that he has been open to meeting new people for some time now, though she only found out at the end of the summer.

‘He has been living in Atlanta for a year for filming.’

Further social media detective work from the Mail on Sunday revealed that Harbour was in India last week and was reportedly seen with another woman at a temple in Rishikesh, in the Himalayan foothills, on Thursday. He and the woman were accompanied by a guide.

David posed for a picture with a fan at the temple, though he was careful to make sure his friend, described as ‘not blonde, very slim, and aged between 22 and 30’ did not appear in the frame.

One fan expressed his surprise on social media after spotting Harbour in India and said: ‘Stranger things do happen. 

‘Now I have the coolest story to share: that time I strolled through the sacred streets of Rishikesh with David Harbour, contemplating life.’

At the time, Allen was 3,000 miles away in Kenya, where she holidayed without David and lay low with her children instead. 

She missed out on a party with showbiz friends including beauty entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury and singer James Blunt on the popular tourist island Lamu.

A source on Lamu said that Lily resisted joining the celebrity bash.

David has previously spoken of his pride at becoming a father figure to Lily’s children, Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 11, from her first marriage to builder Sam Cooper. He has no children of his own.

Lily has alluded on her hit podcast Miss Me? that the children are also experiencing tough times in the wake of their separation.

The Mail on Sunday revealed last month that Lily had worried fans by admitting on Miss Me?: ‘I’m having a bit of a rough time of it at the moment. ‘But I’m trying to soldier on.’

On Thursday’s episode of the podcast, she revealed that she is ‘ready to move on’ and plans to spend January getting her ‘head straight’.

A friend said: ‘The last few months have been truly agony for Lily. He finally called it off a month ago and she is devastated.’

A spokesperson for Lily declined to comment. David did not respond to requests for comment.