Before Lily Allen turned David Harbour’s private life into one of the most talked-about divorce albums of the decade, the “Stranger Things” actor was quietly making moves of his own. It started with a discreet off-market sale of the downtown Manhattan apartment that would become ground zero for the couple’s very public unraveling.

Property records obtained by The Post show that 298 Elizabeth St., unit 2 — a one-bedroom, 1.5-bath condo in the heart of Nolita — closed in August 2025 for $2.7 million, nearly eight years after Harbour purchased it for $2 million in September 2017. 

Ownership was held under a trust called Hop Hat Trust.  

The renovated apartment had been featured in Architectural Digest in 2019, showcasing a vintage-loft aesthetic that Harbour developed with designer Kyle O’Donnell of Gramercy Design — though Harbour himself later admitted the space was a far cry from the eclectic Brooklyn townhouse he and Allen would share. 

“I’m a suburban boy from Westchester,” he said during the couple’s 2023 AD home tour, noting he was more accustomed to a “middle-of-the-road aesthetic.”

During the tour, Harbour revealed a wall installation with a hidden door installed in the entryway and a complete kitchen redesign. He also revealed blacked-out windows in the bedroom. 

What he didn’t mention — but Allen would later spell out in uncomfortable detail — is what the Nolita apartment allegedly served as during their marriage. 

On “P—y Palace,” one of the most inflammatory tracks on Allen’s October 2025 album West End Girl, she describes arriving at what she believed was her husband’s old training space, only to find evidence of a very different kind of activity: unmade sheets, long dark hair on the pillow, and a Duane Reade bag under the bed stocked with sex toys and condoms. 

The song’s chorus, in which she wonders aloud whether she’s married to a sex addict, set off a firestorm online. The album — her first in seven years, written in roughly 10 days while she was processing the collapse of her marriage — was confirmed by multiple outlets in February 2025 to be autobiographical, at least in substantial part.

Allen said she felt it was impossible to move on until the album was out in the world. 

“I couldn’t really get on with my life until I’d said it,” she told CBS Mornings in November. 

The sale of the Elizabeth Street apartment appears to have been timed strategically. 

According to a source, the unit was sold in a rush before the song — and its subject matter — became public knowledge. The source alleged that Harbour “definitely lost money” on the investment after sinking significant funds into renovations, and that proceeds were split with Allen. 

Allen’s West End Girl was released as a surprise on Oct. 24, 2025, arriving nearly a year after the couple’s December 2024 split and eight months after their separation was publicly confirmed.  

Allen described the divorce as “devastating,” telling the Observer she had struggled to eat or sleep in the aftermath and worried about the toll on her children. 

Harbour, for his part, has offered only elliptical acknowledgments. Asked by Esquire Spain whether he had any regrets, he said, “I would change either everything or nothing,” adding that “the slip-ups and the mistakes are all part of the journey.” 

Meanwhile, the couple’s Brooklyn townhouse — the maximalist brownstone that went viral after their 2023 Architectural Digest tour — was listed for $8 million as the marriage dissolved, ultimately selling for $7 million last month, The Post reported.