Lily Allen has said she put on two stone during a tour of North America, and jokingly blamed the country’s chicken wings.
The singer recently returned from a 21-date tour of the United States and Canada, where she played tracks from her recent album, No Shame.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, the 33-year-old was asked whether she used touring as an escape from daily life.
She said: “No, that’s the best bit. It’s the other 22 hours a day when you are sort of waiting around. That’s the chore of the tour.
“I just got back from America. I just eat. I get on my phone and I look for the best places.
“I think I put on about two stone in America, and I’ve grown a beard because of all of the hormones from all the chicken wings I was eating.
“No, I actually got ill and I had to take steroids. It was either chicken related or steroid related. I haven’t figured it out yet.”
In October, Allen fell ill while in Chicago and was forced to cancel a Wednesday night show at the city’s The Vic theatre.
Asked by This Morning host Eamonn Holmes what she does not like about “being Lily Allen”, she admitted that, while she enjoys writing and performing, she does not like the public scrutiny that comes with being famous.
She said: “I love writing songs and I love being on stage and performing them, and I love that people seemingly get something out of my contributions, so I really like all of that.
“I don’t like the negative stuff, I’m not going to lie. I don’t like it. I’m a fighter and when I’m backed into a corner I tend to lash out. Some people are better at dealing with it than others. I’m not very good at it.”
The Smile hitmaker said she had struggled with the idea of people reading her book or listening to her songs, suggesting the reason she had suffered criticism in the press was because she was more concerned with “communicating the truth”.
She said: “I think something I have really struggled with is realising that people are going to read what I talk about, or listen to songs I have written.
“I’m never really thinking about that. It’s probably why I have got myself into so much trouble because I’m not really thinking about the long game. I’m thinking about communicating the truth in that moment. That’s my problem.”