LONDON:'Smile' singer Lily Allen finds it hard to cope if she isn't surrounded by friends and family.

The 24-year-old singer - who miscarried the baby she was expecting with her ex-partner Chemical Brother's Ed Simons last year - finds it hard to cope without her loved ones.

She revealed: "I don't like being on my own very much. Just after I had the miscarriage I went into this therapy centre. "The hardest exercise they gave me was to sit on my bed for an hour without a book or a TV or a magazine. I was in tears the whole time. I just couldn't handle it. It was awful. I hated it."

Although she found the experience hard, Lily admits it made her confront certain things about herself.

She said: "There was one exercise where they ask you to draw something. The art therapist said, 'Anything - a colour, a shape.' I burst into tears. I felt like I was being judged and I knew I couldn't manipulate the situation.

"I learnt from it. I know I have to stop doing things for other people and think of myself."