Lena Dunham details the dissolution of her and Jack Antonoff’s relationship in her new book Famesick, out today (April 14).
Dunham, who dated the Bleachers frontman for about five years starting in 2012, reveals in the newly released memoir that she cheated during a particularly challenging period in their relationship. Simultaneously, the Girls star and creator was dealing with serious health issues.
When Antonoff returned from tour, per Dunham, she “tried to calm my sheer terror by telling myself I was finally home from a bad dream,” adding that she had “proved I could be the freaky sexy lively young woman” with whom her partner had originally fallen in love.
Notably, fans will recall that Lorde and Antonoff, who worked together on 2017’s Melodrama and 2021’s Solar Power, were later made the subjects of romance speculation. Such claims were denied, however.
“Normally I would never address rumors but I resent having the most important friendships and working relationships in my life reduced to dumb hetero normative gossip,” Antonoff said in a social media post that year. “Those relationships are deeply important and sacred. With that said, I’m not seeing anyone.”
Though Lorde is not directly named in Famesick, which comes after last year’s Netflix launch of Dunham and husband Luis Felber’s Too Much series, there is mention of an unidentified “teen pop star” who referred to her as “Aunt Lena” during their work with Antonoff.
Amid her press tour for the new book, Dunham spoke with David Marchese for The Interview. In the conversation, seen below, Marchese playfully attempted to get Dunham to be more specific by tucking in a pun that nodded to Lorde’s Melodrama track “Green Light” and her debut studio album, Pure Heroine.
Dunham responded by joking that the pop star in question was instead Connie Francis, who died last year.
“How long did you rehearse that for?” Dunham joked. “That was really good. But, it was Connie Francis.”
