Lena Dunham is opening up about the demise of her relationship with Jack Antonoff.
Before he found his happily ever after with Margaret Qualley, Taylor Swift’s frequent collaborator dated the Girls creator for the majority of the 2010s. However, their relationship began to falter during a point of high stress for Lena, who was battling addiction, and Jack, who was growing increasingly close to a “teen pop star.”
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In 2017, Lena underwent an hysterectomy at just 31 years old to combat intense and chronic endometriosis pain. For those unaware, a hysterectomy involves the “surgical removal of your uterus and, most likely, your cervix,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. In her new memoir Famesick, which hit bookshelves on Tuesday, Lena opens up about battling an addiction to pain medication following the procedure, which she eventually checked herself into rehab for. During that time, Jack was collaborating with a “teen pop star,” who the music producer spent an eyebrow-raising amount of time with in Lena’s eyes. She wrote:
“One day I returned home from a bone density test to find her sprawled across our sectional couch, weeping into Jack’s lap as he told her that ‘your teens are for experimenting’ in a tone so comforting, it almost brought tears to my eyes. It had been so long since he’d spoken to me with that kind of expansive generosity.”
Oof.
Lena and Jack went on to have a major blowout fight following her hysterectomy, which led to a break for the pair. However, they chose to still live under the same roof, which wasn’t too difficult as Jack was frequently on tour. What quickly became messy was the terms and bounds of said break, which for Lena, felt ambiguous. Initially, the comedian observed “careful boundaries” and avoided sparking any connection with another man, but suggested Jack may not have been observing the same boundaries:
“If I wanted to look, perhaps I may have seen that Jack was not observing them as closely as I was.”
The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress went on to discuss the online fan chatter about her and Jack’s relationship, and particularly a viral PowerPoint that tracked his alleged affair with Lorde… who would be a reasonable guess for the “teen pop star” Lena talked about earlier. On the fans’ PowerPoint presentation, Lena noted:
“[They were] so convincing that they had me rethinking events that I myself had been present for.”
Not long after all that drama made her question everything, Lena reunited with a childhood friend named Nick, whom she admitted she dated in middle school… and it led to a major shift! She wrote:
“I decided, then and there, that the only thing that could save me was to be wanted.”
Lena felt she needed Nick to help cheer her up after her surgery, so they met up:
“In the cab, we hugged again, and I said this: ‘I’ve been through something awful. I don’t want to talk about it, but I need you to f**k me and I need you to do all of the work.”
And that he did! Lena recalled feeling “euphoria that in recent months only intravenous medication had provided” during their hookup:
“It wasn’t a sexual pleasure really … but I had complete thoughts for the first time in months … They sounded something like this: I am an adulteress. I am a c**t. My intestines are where my womb should go, but look at this, I am alive.”
Lena and Nick continued to hook up while Jack was away on tour, and eventually, she confronted the reality that she and the Bleachers musician needed to split. So one morning during breakfast, she told him that neither one of them were making the other happy anymore, which he emotionally agreed with:
“We put our foreheads together and wept. In some fit of delusion, I asked if we could still go on dates. We can do whatever you want,’ he said, the relief making us both euphoric with adoration.”
The pair officially called things off in 2018 after more than five years together.
As we know, Jack has since married Margaret Qualley, while Lena tied the knot with Luis Felber in 2021.
What are your reactions to this revelation, Perezcious readers?? Let us know in the comments down below!
P.S. CLICK HERE to read the claims she dropped about Adam Driver!
[Images via Adriana M. Barraza/MEGA/WENN]
