{"id":390812,"date":"2026-04-14T02:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/390812\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T02:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:33:13","slug":"lena-dunham-says-she-loved-rehab-and-tolerated-adam-drivers-male-genius-plus-more-from-her-new-memoir-famesick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/390812\/","title":{"rendered":"Lena Dunham says she loved rehab and tolerated Adam Driver’s ‘male genius.’ Plus, more from her new memoir, ‘Famesick’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lena Dunham has been famous for a long time. When Girls, the hit HBO series that she created and starred in, premiered in 2012, Dunham was just shy of her 26th birthday. She famously played the show\u2019s chaotic and existential leading lady, Hannah Horvath, for which she faced intense media scrutiny<\/a>. Now, on the cusp of turning 40, Dunham is ready to reflect on that pivotal time of her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamesick is, ostensibly, about the years 2010\u20132020 \u2014 a decade in which my life changed profoundly and permanently, in which nearly every strand of my DNA reconstituted itself,\u201d Dunham wrote on Instagram<\/a> last September, when she first announced the memoir. \u201cBut it\u2019s also about illness as teacher, body as tattletale, our societal relationship to women on the edge, and the conditions that create art vs. the conditions that create happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunham may have retreated from the spotlight, but with Famesick, she\u2019s cautiously reemerging on her own terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has definitely been the most public period of my life since the almost 10 years that Girls went off the air, and it\u2019s cool to see how different it is for me this time around,\u201d Dunham recently told People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Below, read Yahoo\u2019s roundup of everything Dunham has said about Famesick so far \u2014 from her romance with musician and producer Jack Antonoff to her allegedly volatile working relationship with actor Adam Driver and everything in between.<\/p>\n

On her relationship with Jack Antonoff and feeling like a \u2018really late bloomer\u2019\"Lena<\/p>\n

Lena Dunham and Jack Antonoff at the 71st annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 12, 2014.<\/p>\n

(Michael Kovac\/Getty Images for Moet & Chandon)<\/p>\n

Dunham and Antonoff dated for about five years<\/a>, from 2012 to 2017. Their romance began shortly after Girls premiered, while Antonoff was finding success as the lead guitarist of the band Fun. The couple called it quits in late 2017 after reportedly \u201cgrowing apart.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the New York Times<\/a>, Dunham spoke about how fame affected her relationship with Antonoff \u2014 and how difficult that breakup was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a unique privilege to have every breakup song you love written by your ex,\u201d Dunham said. \u201cI feel blessed. I was a really late bloomer. That was my first. I felt like you fall in love with someone and then you\u2019re together for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Girls creator continued, \u201cThat 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

On working with Adam Driver and tolerating his \u2018male genius\u2019\"Adam<\/p>\n

Adam Driver and Lena Dunham in 2013.<\/p>\n

(FilmMagic via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Among the most shocking revelations in Famesick is Dunham\u2019s alleged experience working with Adam Driver on the set of Girls. Before he became an Oscar-nominated actor known for films like Marriage Story, The Last Duel and Megalopolis, Driver played Adam Sackler, a brooding actor and woodworker who has a toxic on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Dunham\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

In her book, Dunham recounts Driver\u2019s alleged toxic behavior on set, which included allegedly screaming in her face, throwing a chair at a wall next to her and punching a hole in his trailer wall, the Guardian reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dunham told the outlet that she didn\u2019t have the foresight to confront Driver about it: \u201cAt the time, I didn\u2019t have the skill to. \u2026 It never entered my mind to say, \u2018I am your boss, you can\u2019t speak to me this way.\u2019 And, at that point in my 20s, I still thought that\u2019s what great male geniuses do: Eviscerate you. Which is weird, because I was raised by a male genius who would never do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Too Much creator was also keen to acknowledge the \u201camazing men\u201d in her life, including Judd Apatow, Tim Bevan, Sam Levy and Mark Ruffalo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of them walking around,\u201d Dunham told the Guardian. \u201cBut there were years when I thought: \u2018Can\u2019t I just make things that only have women in them?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On the internet being \u2018a game you want to win\u2019 in your early 20s\"From<\/p>\n

From left, Zosia Mamet, Jemima Kirke, Lena Dunham and Allison Williams attend the New York premiere of “Girls” in April 2012.<\/p>\n

(Stephen Lovekin via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Dunham was just 23 when she sold Girls to HBO, and 25 when the series premiered. Describing herself and her fellow Girls costars Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet as \u201clambs to the slaughter,\u201d Dunham spoke to the Guardian<\/a> about the extensive online criticism she faced in the early 2010s \u2014 and how she tried to work through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have an addictive personality, which clearly I do, any hit of the dopamine of positivity [is welcome] and there\u2019s also a hit of adrenaline that comes from the negative,\u201d Dunham explained. \u201cAnd then, because you see something negative, you want to see something positive to erase it, and you end up in this cycle. It\u2019s easy when you\u2019re young to feel the internet\u2019s a game you want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

On \u2018genuinely\u2019 loving rehab<\/p>\n

In April 2018, Dunham checked into a 28-day rehab program<\/a> for an addiction to benzodiazepines, a prescribed anxiety medication that she began to abuse. She checked out of rehab on her 32nd birthday and is eight years sober this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved rehab. I genuinely did,\u201d she told the New York Times. \u201cA 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\u2019re sitting on your bed in a good mood. There\u2019s nothing in that. I want to have good feelings where you look under them and there are more good feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n

On dealing with chronic illness and processing sexual trauma<\/p>\n

Dunham also spoke to the New York Times more broadly about her health, including coping with chronic illnesses and lacking control over what\u2019s happening to her body.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Dunham made the decision to undergo a total hysterectomy<\/a> at 31 to treat the intolerable pain caused by severe endometriosis. In 2024, she announced her diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic condition that affects connective tissues in the skin, joints and blood vessels. Symptoms include chronic pain, joint dislocations and severe bruising.<\/p>\n

\u201cIllness, like fame, can make you contract into self because physical pain is one of the most selfish feelings that exists. All you want is to be out of it. Also, illness is scary to people,\u201d Dunham told the New York Times<\/a>. \u201cSomehow my health picture kept getting less clear, not more, which also makes it very hard for other people to empathize with, because it seems abstract, amorphous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sexual traumas have also affected Dunham\u2019s relationship with her body. In Famesick, Dunham writes about being molested by a babysitter and having abusive sexual relationships, according to the New York Times. Dunham recounted a conversation with the bestselling author Dr. Gabor Mat\u00e9 that helped her make sense of her bodily traumas.<\/p>\n

\u201cMat\u00e9 said, \u2018Lena, once you have that experience as a kid, it\u2019s like the weak wolf that gets picked off the pack. Someone who is looking for that sees you,\u2019\u201d Dunham said. \u201cThese experiences build up in you, you develop more distance from your body, people who want to cross boundaries are able to identify that you are someone who might not know how to deflect that. I needed some narrative cohesion to understand why there was this consistent pattern of feeling violated, and that was really soothing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n