One of the big reveals within Lena Dunham’s new memoir, Famesick, is what went down around her late-2017 split from Jack Antonoff. She clearly indicates that she believed (and still believes) that Jack crossed some lines with Lorde when they were working together on Lorde’s Melodrama. But then Lena cheated on Jack with an ex-boyfriend, and immediately confessed the situation to Jack as soon as he got back into town. One could argue about a break-up’s original sins, but to me, it sounds like Lena sabotaged her long-term relationship just to break free from a situation which had largely stagnated. Lena was recently profiled in the NY Times and they got into the Antonoff situation too:

NYT: Jack Antonoff is another relationship you write about in the book. How did fame deepen that relationship, and how may it have destabilized it?
Dunham: It’s a unique privilege to have every breakup song you love written by your ex. I feel blessed. 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?

NYT: I would think there’s something exhilarating about being in a relationship with a famous person. Like, You’re cool and I’m cool and the world’s telling us we’re cool! But then life has to happen.
Dunham: 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.

NYT: You’re pretty coy in the book about who the “teen pop star” was that Jack is hanging around with.
Dunham: [Again playfully] There’s no teen pop star in the book, David, you misread.

NYT: Do you think it would be giving people a “Green Light” of “Pure Heroine” to say who the pop star was?
Dunham: How long did you rehearse that for? That was really good. It was Connie Francis.

[From The NY Times]

That’s probably as close as Lena is going to come to saying that she loved the idea of Jack more than the reality of him, I think. She loved that she was dating this cool producer who was also in a band and all of those cute pop stars adored him but he was dating Lena, so take that. I’m not criticizing any of that – it’s easy to understand why they were together for five/six years, just as it’s easy to understand why she sabotaged the relationship. Meanwhile, this popped up on Deuxmoi, regarding Jack and Lena:

With “Famesick” putting renewed attention on Lena Dunham’s past relationship with Jack Antonoff, a source is offering a different perspective. A well-placed source tells us Jack is “the nicest guy” and easy to work with. They say their personal experience with the musician didn’t line up with some of the dynamics described in the memoir.

The source describes a less consistent experience with Dunham, alleging situations where promises weren’t always followed through, along with last minute cancellations and frequent lateness that affected others.

In their view, there may be some lingering tension tied to how things have played out for Dunham professionally, though they describe the overall experience as frustrating and unpredictable.

While Dunham’s book reflects her personal perspective on a complicated relationship, with miscommunication and emotional disconnect on both sides, the source maintains that, from where they stood, Antonoff was consistently reliable throughout that time.

[From Deuxmoi]

I looked around to see if Jack or his team were saying much of anything about Lena’s book, and I couldn’t find anything but this, which sounds more like it came from someone in the music industry. I believe that Jack is reliable, and that’s one of the big reasons why all of the pop girls love him and work with him over and over again. I also believe that Lena probably has huge reliability issues. But this whole story is about more than who is reliable and who is a basketcase.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.