Lily Allen feels 'protected' by church

London - Lily Allen feels "protected" by her local church.

The 26-year-old singer - who revealed at her wedding to Sam Cooper earlier this month that she is pregnant - decided to marry in her local village of Cranham, Gloucestershire, South West England, because of the support she received from neighbours when she lost her baby when she was six months pregnant last November.

She said: "People wouldn't have thought I'd have a church wedding, but since I had the really traumatic experience last year, our local community all pitched in.

"We hadn't been there long, but after the news got out we received flowers and really heartfelt, beautifully written cards.

"Our vicar said a similar thing had happened to his family, so he would come over and sit with me.

"It feels really nice. We feel protected."

Sam’s positive influence

Lily also admitted Sam helped her curb her partying lifestyle after her drinking threatened to get out of control.

She explained to the new issue of Britain's Elle magazine: "I wasn't eating and then, you know, I was going out at night.

"I guess when you're not eating you have to distract yourself with other things.

"Come three o'clock it was like, 'Oh, I suppose it's acceptable to have a glass of wine.' And then by four o'clock I would have had four glasses. It's not the way to be.

"But then I met Sam and he noticed that behaviour. I think it came to a point for him where he was thinking, 'Can I be with this girl if this is what her life is like? I want to make this work, but I can't live in this world.'

"I just needed someone to tell me. I suppose I was doing all that because I wanted acceptance and if he was telling me that he'd already accepted me for who I was and I didn't need to do all this bullshit, then it made me feel safe and secure."