Music : Lily Allen says term ‘nepo baby’ is “sexist” as only used for women

Lily Allen has claimed that the term ‘nepo baby’ is “sexist”, as it is used for women much more than for men.

The term has gained momentum in recent years, and is the title given to the children of famous parents who have been helped in their careers due to their parent’s wealth, connections and experience.

Now, the singer and actress has weighed in on the term and described it as both “infantilising”, and sexist as it is used nearly exclusively for women.

“’Nepo babies’, I think it’s quite like ‘Karen’, in the sense that it’s just a word that is basically used for women who are taking up space and we’d rather they didn’t and they should just go away,” Allen said on the Miss Me? podcast (via The Independent).

“I’m called a ‘nepo baby’ all the time. I actually don’t really mind the nepotism thing, it’s the ‘baby’ that annoys me, it’s like, I’m 40 years old nearly!”

She continued, explaining that her relation to her father, actor Keith Allen, gets brought up much more than it does for her brother – Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen.

“It’s meant to be infantilising. Also, I think it’s something that is almost exclusively used for women, I don’t think I can even really name any male ‘nepo babies’. My brother, for instance, doesn’t get called ‘nepo baby’ and I do,” she added.

“I feel like a lot of the time over the past 15, 20 years, when I’ve been written about, it will always say ‘Lily Allen, daughter of Keith Allen’ and I don’t see that happening with boys as often as it does with girls.

“It’s always like when we’re talking about women in these spaces.. there’s like a follow-up of what it really was that put them there. There’s an element of truth to it, I grew up in a certain class bracket, I grew up in and amongst people that worked in media, and I don’t think I’ve ever really disputed that.”

The comments made on the Miss Me? podcast also align with those Allen shared back in 2022, when she explained that the ‘nepo babies’ people “should be worrying about are the ones working for legal firms, the ones working for banks, and the ones working in politics”.

Others to speak out against the term and brand it as sexist include actor Lily-Rose Depp – daughter of Johnny Depp and French singer Vanessa Paradis – who said that it “doesn’t make any sense” and is only used against women.

“Maybe you get your foot in the door, but you still just have your foot in the door. There’s a lot of work that comes after that,” she said. “If somebody’s mom or dad is a doctor, and then the kid becomes a doctor, you’re not going to be like, ‘Well, you’re only a doctor because your parent is a doctor.’ It’s like, ‘No, I went to medical school and trained.’”

“I just hear it a lot more about women, and I don’t think that it’s a coincidence.”

Similar sentiments have been expressed by Gwyneth Paltrow – who last year described the term as an “ugly moniker” while supporting her daughter’s career as a Chanel Model – as well as Noel Gallagher’s daughter Anaïs, who works as a photographer and model, and Lenny Kravitz and Lisa Bonet’s daughter Zoë Kravitz, who has starred in The Batman, High Fidelity and more.

More recently, the debate has come to a head again, with New Girl star Zooey Deschanel last month insisting that being the daughter of six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Lion King, The Passion of Christ, The Godfather and Titanic) did not make it easier for her to break into the industry.

Similarly, just last week Willow Smith – singer, songwriter and daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith – revealed that she felt a sense of “insecurity” when it comes to being a ‘nepo baby’ ahead of the release of her new album ‘Empathogen’.

One who has spoken out about the other side of the debate, however, is I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel, who last year stated that she finds it “hilarious” when ‘nepo babies’ don’t understand their privilege when it comes to opportunity and access in industries.