Allen recovering from baby loss with therapist's help

British singer Lily Allen has praised her therapist for helping her overcome the trauma of losing a baby, and forcing her to accept she's not ready in any case to be a mum.

Through professional help, the 'Smile' hitmaker - whose parents, actor Keith Allen and film-maker Alison Owen, divorced when she was four - has come to realise her obsessive desire for a family stems from her own troubled childhood.

Allen was devastated when she suffered a miscarriage in January, and her misery was confounded when she split with the baby's father, Chemical Brothers star Ed Simons.

However, the singer is slowly coming to terms with her loss - and the damaging effects of her youth.

She says: "My childhood was really tough, although I didn't think of it in that way at the time. I used to feel sorry for myself and I could never work out why. But I need to give myself that. I think having a child was the idea of reliving my childhood but doing it right.

"But since I lost the baby I think maybe I wasn't ready and it gives me the chance to sort it all out in a better way. I'm working through it in therapy. I've done therapy for years, but not properly because I used to lie to my therapist. But now I've started to be honest and I'm much happier."