Owen was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, to Mary Kathleen (née Hitchiner), a Royal Navy dockyard worker, and Peter Ronald Owen, chief petty officer in the Royal Navy, and was the younger of two daughters. Her elder sister is Jill Beatrice Owen (born 1959).

Owen's first marriage (other sources simply say "relationship") started when she was a teenager in the 1970s, producing her first child, Sarah Owen, near Christmas 1979, while Owen was an 18-year-old university student. She married actor Keith Allen in 1984, and they had two children together, pop singer Lily Allen and actor Alfie Allen, before divorcing in 1989. She is married to art Director Aaron Batterham, who has four children of his own.

Her credits as a Producer include Moonlight and Valentino (1995), Elizabeth (1998), Sylvia (2003), Shaun of the Dead (2004), Proof (2005), The Other Boleyn Girl (2007), Brick Lane (2007), Chatroom (2010), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Tulip Fever (2017).

In 2017 the National Portrait Gallery acquired an early portrait of Owen for their permanent collection by Photographer David Gwinnutt.