Even if you don’t recognise her face just yet, you’ll know the name – Molly Moorish Gallagher, 21, eldest daughter of former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. Her mum is singer, actor and eternal cool girl Lisa Moorish, she calls Pete Doherty her stepdad (he is her half-brother’s dad), Noel Gallagher is her uncle and she grew up running around Glastonbury Festival.
But rather than follow in the family business, Molly is in her second year at Goldsmiths University, studying politics and sociology. She’s also an ambassador for homelessness charity Centrepoint and recently fronted an All Saints campaign.
For her first solo interview, she arrives at Beckenham Place Park in south London bang on time, dressed in cosy sportswear. Perfectly polite and sure of herself but just a little bit shy, she’s definitely still a Gallagher. ‘I’ve obviously got the eyebrows,’ she says with a laugh. ‘I mean, they’re big.’
Molly had always known Liam was her father (she was conceived two months after he married Patsy Kensit), but only met him for the first time when she was 20. Previously, she’d been in contact with her uncle Noel, though, and landed in the centre of a social media spat, with mum Lisa attacking Liam in 2017 – before backing Noel with the hashtag #FAMILYFIRST.
Molly’s pretty acquiescent about Liam’s absence. ‘It was normal because it was just what I knew,’ she explains, matter-of-factly. But even as a kid Molly was well aware of who her father was. So did she listen to Oasis? ‘I did. I think I went through a rebellious Blur phase, but yeah!’
Molly and Liam finally met in 2018, but she had already crossed paths with her two half-brothers, Gene, 18 – whose mother is Nicole Appleton of All Saints – and Lennon, 20 – from Liam’s first marriage to actor Patsy Kensit. She’d hung out with Lennon a couple of times when they were six (‘He doesn’t remember it, but I do!’) and was friends with Gene on Instagram before they came face to face at an event. ‘We were both like... “Oh, hi!”’
It was that meeting which led to Molly and her dad finally connecting, even though they’d both recently been at the same BRITS after-party. ‘I had no idea he was in the room until the next day. I read that and I was like, “That could’ve been awkward...”’
Though the big reveal of their eventual reconciliation came via an Instagram photo posted by Liam of him, Molly and his two sons backstage at a gig, they’d actually met up a couple of weeks previously, alongside his fiancée Debbie Gwyther, at Liam’s local in north London. ‘We went to the pub and got on so well,’ remembers Molly. ‘For the build-up, I was not really thinking about it. Then, for the first five minutes, I was like, “Oh, this is weird,” and then it just was fine.’
I go to him for boy advice
Eighteen months later, and Liam and Molly are incredibly close. Last autumn, she added ‘Gallagher’ to her name on social media – though she still needs to send off the Deed Poll application (‘I got the forms but I haven’t officially done it yet’) – and she regularly hits him up for relationship help. ‘I go to him for boy advice,’ she says. ‘He’ll be like, “Stay away from that one...”’
Doing his best to make up for lost time, Liam’s taken Molly on a three-week tour of the US, to Ibiza on holiday and, despite her parents’ Twitter spat in 2017, Liam and Lisa put water under the bridge and both attended her 21st at The Groucho, ‘which was nice. [Mum’s] just happy for me,’ says Molly with a smile. It’s far from a traditional family set-up, but in Molly’s situation, it’s a case of the more the merrier. ‘I think my family has always been like that, even before I knew my dad’s side,’ she explains. ‘Me and Mum, we always had an unconventional family, but it’s the best kind.’
A sonic apology of sorts, Liam – who has another daughter he has never met in the US – included a song about Molly on his last album, called Now That I’ve Found You. He first played it to her on Christmas Day 2018, months before the album’s release. ‘It was a good present,’ she says. ‘Everyone was listening at the table getting emotional.’
Now a tight-knit unit, Molly, Gene and Lennon were partying together at Soho Farmhouse on New Year’s Eve and share a group chat with their dad that constantly buzzes. She’ll also be a bridesmaid at Liam’s upcoming wedding.
We don’t “not speak” but we don’t speak, if that makes sense
But things aren’t totally perfect. Of her relationship with Uncle Noel, Molly chooses her words carefully. Since reuniting with her dad, Molly and Noel – who were on good terms before Liam was in the picture – have ceased communication. ‘We don’t “not speak” but we don’t speak, if that makes sense,’ says Molly, adding the silence ‘wasn’t my decision’. It’s clear that the infamous rift between Noel and Liam is as knotty asever. ‘They don’t talk, which is unfortunate,’ admits Molly. Chances of an Oasis reunion? ‘Zero,’ she says instantly.
Instead, the last gig she went to was ‘stepdad’ Pete playing with The Libertines at Brixton Academy. Though Molly grew up with single mum Lisa around Belsize Park and Primrose Hill, when she was around 10, the family moved to Wiltshire, near to Pete, dad to Molly’s brother Astile, 16. Molly and Pete both have tattoos of Astile’s name. ‘He’s my favourite person,’ says Molly. ‘He’s an annoying little brother but he’s a funny, lovable, annoying little brother. We don’t live together any more, which has made us closer – it gives him time to miss me.’
It’s clear Lisa has had a profound impact on Molly’s life, instilling in her a strong moral compass and a sense of compassion, as well as offering guidance on how to navigate her new-found fame. ‘She’s always there,’ explains Molly. ‘She’s always said, just make sure uni [comes] first, everything else after. And not to care what other people think.’
Putting this into practice, Molly has vowed to stop reading about herself online. ‘I have done in the past, when it first started happening [but] I now definitely don’t look. It’s so tempting, though... I think everyone does it, even big celebrities. Everyone sees it and they upset themselves.’
Currently finishing an essay on Black Lives Matter, a movement that holds a strong personal connection (‘My grandad’s Jamaican, my mum’s stepdad is from Guyana’), Molly is working out what to do when she graduates. She’s had fun modelling but, ‘I don’t see it being my career.’ She’d rather continue with the philanthropic work that saw her getting stuck into Centrepoint’s Sleep Out event last year.
As she’s studying politics, we wonder what the chances are of Molly Moorish Gallagher being in charge of the country one day? She’s certainly endured some lessons in diplomacy. ‘I saw a psychic and she said she could see me being PM,’ laughs Molly, that Gallagher cheekiness on full beam. ‘I can’t quite see it myself, but who knows?’
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