NEED TO KNOW
Dakota Johnson unexpectedly returned to Studio 8H this weekend!
On Saturday, Dec. 13, Saturday Night Live aired the latest episode of season 51 with Josh O’Connor as host and Lily Allen as the musical guest.
Johnson, 36, joined Allen, 40, as she performed “Madeline” from her latest album West End Girl, a song in which the narrator confronts a woman named Madeline who slept with her husband.
The singer sang to the side of the stage as Johnson sat hidden behind a sheer curtain, awaiting the moment she would read a message while in character. Before the song finished, Johnson stepped out from behind the curtain to reveal herself to the audience and joined Allen center stage.
“I hate that you’re in so much pain right now … He told me that you were aware this was going on and that he had your full consent,” said Johnson as Madeline.
“If he’s lying about that, then please let me know. Because I have my own feelings about dishonesty. Lies are not something that I wanna get caught up in,” concluded Johnson.
The Fifty Shades of Grey star then kissed Allen on the cheek and the pair hugged. Johnson has previously hosted SNL twice.
Allen also performed “Sleepwalking” from her latest album West End Girl, which alludes to her split from David Harbour, during her appearance on SNL.
Singing “Sleepwalking,” Allen details her frustrations over her past relationship with the lyrics, “Looking back, it’s so absurd / Course I trusted you and took you at your word … / Been no romance since we wed … / But you let me think it was me in my head / And nothing to do with them girls in your bed.”
Saturday Night Live/YouTube
PEOPLE confirmed that Allen and Harbour, 50, had separated in February, after four years of marriage.
“Her marriage has been crumbling, and they have split,” an insider told PEOPLE exclusively at the time.
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Allen and Harbour first sparked romance rumors in 2019, and the Stranger Things actor and the “Smile” musician later tied the knot during a Las Vegas wedding in 2020.
The pair was joined by Allen’s two children, daughters Marnie Rose and Ethel Mary, whom she shares with her ex-husband Sam Cooper.
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Allen released West End Girl in October. The album features eye-opening lyrics inspired by the breakdown of her marriage to Harbour, but Allen has said that some of the songs are written “in character.”
She previously told Perfect Magazine that the words used “could be considered autofiction” — a genre that combines autobiography and fiction — and in a press release for the LP, Allen further explained, “I’ve tried to document my life in a new city and the events that led me to where I am in my life now. At the same time, I’ve used shared experiences as the basis for songs which try to delve into why we humans behave as we do, so the record is a mixture of fact and fiction.”
West End Girl features lyrics about exploring an open relationship despite hesitancy, and subsequently learning that the terms of the arrangement were not what was initially thought. Some song titles include “Pussy Palace” and “Nonmonogamummy.”
Saturday Night Live airs weekends on NBC.
