Lena Dunham found validation with Jack Antonoff
Lena Dunham found validation in her relationship with first love Jack Antonoff so found their break-up "extremely intense".
Lena Dunham found validation in her relationship with Jack Antonoff so found their break-up "extremely intense".
The Girls creator split from the musician in 2018 after six years together and not only did she find it hard for her first love to end but her feeligns were exacerbated because she felt having approval from Jack gave her worth at a time when she attracted a lot of public criticism.
She told the New York Times newspaper: ""I was a really late bloomer. That was my first. I felt like you fall in love with someone and then you’re together for the rest of your life.
"That ending was extremely intense for me.
"I looked around and was like, Is everybody this upset about their breakup? But it was also because of what it represented publicly for me: If you have this dynamic, intelligent, talented man who is signing off on you, how bad could you really be?"
Lena - who is now married to Luis Felber, while Jack wed Margaret Qualley last year - feels "blessed" that her former partner wrote so many of her favourite break-up songs.
She said: "It’s a unique privilege to have every breakup song you love written by your ex. I feel blessed."
The 39-year-old actress thinks her and Jack's wealth and fame stopped them living a real life for some time.
She mused: " Well, what delays life? Lots of external support, money. No one under 30 should be given any money, because then they can just play house for as long as they want.
"It’s like on the one hand we have Bruce Springsteen, and on the other hand Edna St. Vincent Millay after she got addicted to opium and fell down the stairs — and they’re living together in an apartment."
Lena went into rehab eight years ago and while she "loved" her time in the treatment facility, she didn't initially think she "belonged there" because she didn't see she had a problem.
She said: I loved rehab. I genuinely did. Girls finished in September of 2016, and I went away in April of 2018. I turned 32 the day that I left, and I’m about to be 40. So it’ll be eight years sober in April.
"It’s been a really good thing for me.
"Pretty much until the minute I got there, I had no idea that I belonged there. I thought I was following the doctor’s instructions a little too well, and suddenly I realised that like many Americans, I had a dependent relationship with pharmaceuticals.
"I was lucky enough that I could go somewhere and work through that.
"So many people have to grip the walls in their bedroom. It was a really important page-turn experience. A lot of addiction is feeling a positive feeling that is in direct contrast with the rest of your life. Your life is falling apart and you’re sitting on your bed in a good mood.
"There’s nothing in that. I want to have good feelings where you look under them and there are more good feelings."
