NEED TO KNOW
Lena Dunham is getting candid about her last “affair” before marriage in a new essay ahead of the release of her upcoming Netflix series Too Much.
Dunham, 39, penned a guest essay for British Vogue detailing her last experience in the dating world before she married her husband, Luis Felber, in 2021.
“You really never know when you’re having your last affair,” her essay begins. “Some of us hope that every frog we kiss is our happy ending, while others stand hand in hand with their soulmate, still terrified of the vista narrowing, the buffet running out, closing time.”
Dunham, who created and starred in HBO’s smash hit series Girls based on her life, has long been open about her romantic history through her work. She was previously in a relationship with Jack Antonoff from 2012 to 2018.
Her Vogue essay continued to detail the mystery man, “I met Craig in a backyard in LA, in the halcyon days of the pandemic. He was sitting in a folding chair with his mask on, ankles crossed in perfectly worn Vans.”
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She then explained, “But when he lowered his mask – Covid restrictions were only just lifting – to take a sip of water, I felt my stomach flip-flop. It was something about the golden symmetry of his face, the position of his pillowy mouth in relation to his strong yet cherubic nose, like they were selected right from a ‘Brad Pitt facial features’ catalogue.”
The actress recounted Craig saying, “You make me nervous,” and in response, Dunham wrote, “I wondered if beautiful men are like spiders – they’re just as scared of you as you are of them.”
Throughout the essay, the actress and writer examines her relationship with dating and romance, and the impact it has had on her creative life. She recounts her final meeting with Craig, during a weekend getaway to Santa Barbara, Calif. that ended in her tearful departure to the U.K., leaving behind a gold chain and a handwritten letter for Craig to remember her by.
Dunham’s upcoming series Too Much is loosely based on her experience of relocating from her native New York City to London, where she eventually found love with Felber, 38, after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date.
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She recounted of her first time meeting Felber, “Equally chastened and enlightened by the Craig of it all, I would ask this man hard questions, and I would really hear him when he answered, slowly and deliberately, sometimes telling me things he knew I wouldn’t want to hear, but doing it anyway (which I’ve come to think is love.).”
Too Much, which will star Megan Stalter, Will Sharpe, Emily Ratajkowski, Richard E. Grant, Rita Wilson, Rhea Pearlman, and more, hits Netflix on July 10.