James Corden Responds to Lily Allen Calling Him ‘Beg Friend’

James Corden has responded to comments made by Lily Allen about him on a recent podcast.

Over the years, Corden has faced criticism from several celebrities, including Mel B, who called him the “rudest celebrity” she’s ever met, and Sharon Osbourne, who issued a complaint about the Gavin & Stacey star on Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year.

On the BBC podcast Miss Me?, singer-turned-actor Allen referred to Corden as her “famous beg friend.” She explained, “[He] came on my chat show and was very flirtatious with me, and we sort of made friends and I introduced him to a group of my friends.”

A “beg friend” is described as a person who seeks attention in the hope of forming a friendship, to the point that it becomes off-putting.

During a discussion with her podcast co-host Miquita Oliver, Allen described that period of time as “a bit hazy,” but said that Corden suggested in his memoir that “I was leading him on or something, which I definitely wasn’t.”

Corden wrote in his 2011 memoir May I Have Your Attention: “She’s confident, funny, and intelligent. We got talking at the party after the film and she asked me for my phone number, which was a bit embarrassing as I was standing with my girlfriend at the time.”

According to DailyMail.com, Corden thinks Allen’s comments were “tacky” and is “a bit of a t*** to have said anything at all.”

A source said: “James gets a bunch of heat on how he treats people over and over again and is a very polarising person. So, when Lily recently talked s*** about him, to James, it was just another day in his life, just another hater.

“He believes he has never been desperate and deserves better and is pretty much over people talking about him in a negative way. But the only way that will change is when he starts to change.”

The source also said that Corden “doesn’t get why he upsets so many people because he is just being himself.”

In 2022, restaurant owner Keith McNally described Corden as “a tiny cretin of a man” for allegedly making nasty comments and demands of his workers at Balthazar on two occasions.

Writing in an Instagram post, McNally declared he had “86’d” the comedian from his New York restaurant and Corden was no longer welcome there.

Corden, who previously said he had done “nothing wrong,” later admitted that he made “a rude, rude comment,” adding that “it was never my intention” to upset the staff.

McNally then lifted the ban following Corden’s apology on The Late Late Show.