'It wasn't salacious': Lily Allen downplays sex with female escorts

The singer joked that media reports about her having sex with escorts have seen presales go through the roof. Photo / AP

Lily Allen has downplayed revelations she slept with female escorts while on tour, saying it wasn't "a salacious sex story".

In her first TV interview since news broke about her paying sex workers, Allen told Tuesday's episode of The Project she took issue with how media outlets had described the encounters.

"It's more about a period of time when I was feeling incredibly lonely and sort of at my wits' end, and I was looking for anything, looking for an outlet, so it is not really like a salacious sex story," she said.

"It is more about hotel rooms like the one we are sitting in, and being on my own and being very far away from my kids and my husband. It is not like steamy, raunchy — although that is what the tabloids made it out to be like. (A) sort of lesbian prostitute sex romp, which I guess it was, in a way.

The singer reckons she has had the last laugh as the presales for her autobiography My Thoughts Exactly have gone through the roof.

"It's a pretty great tease for the book though," interviewer Tommy Little said.

"Yeah, well, thanks to the person who leaked it, number one bestseller in rock, as of today," Allen said with a laugh.

Over the weekend, Allen revealed on Instagram that she had slept with female escorts while still married to husband Sam Cooper.

She came clean on the revelations just hours before a UK newspaper article was published detailing the encounters.

"I slept with female escorts when I was on tour, cause I was lost and lonely and looking for something," Allen wrote. "I'm not proud, but I'm not ashamed. I don't do it anymore."

View this post on Instagram

Sooo, in my book ‘My Thoughts Exactly’ (out on 20th Sept) I detail some stuff from my dark days, around the Sheezus era. I slept with female escorts when I was on tour, cause I was lost and lonely and looking for something. I’m not proud, but I’m not ashamed. I don’t do it anymore. The Mail are gonna run with the story tomorrow cause someone leaked it, and they’re bound to make sound worse than it was. Just wanted to give you Er, the ‘heads up’ ! #LINKINBIO

A post shared by Putting the ‘is’ in Nuance (@lilyallen) on Sep 1, 2018 at 10:52am PDT

When one fan asked Allen if there was "something wrong with being a female escort", she replied: "I'm not proud because I was married at the time."

The singer sought out sex workers while on tour in 2014 following the release of her third album Sheezus.

Allen was married to Cooper from 2011 to 2016 and the former couple share two daughters together; six-year-old Ethel and five-year-old Marnie.

The singer is currently in Australia to promote her 2019 tour No Shame, with tickets going on sale next week.