Lena Dunham has become a mother for the first time after welcoming a child via surrogate.
The 40-year-old creator of Girls and her husband, Luis Felber, shared the news in an op-ed for Vogue published on Wednesday morning.
Dunham had largely kept her hopes of becoming a parent private, particularly after undergoing a hysterectomy in 2018.
The actress and writer made the difficult decision to undergo a total hysterectomy, which removed her uterus and cervix, as well as one ovary, following years of severe endometriosis-related pain.
In her Vogue essay, Dunham recalled the first words she spoke to her child: “Hello. I’m your mama. You look nothing like I thought you would, but exactly right. We’ve been waiting for you, do you know that? It was so nice of you to come.”
“I meant it,” the star continued, describing herself as bashful and dizzy with happiness, much like a child unsure whether school friends will show up to a birthday party.
Lena Dunham and husband Luis Felber announced that they had welcomed a child via surrogate (Above, the couple in London in June last year)
Dunham was seen attending a J.Crew x Eckhaus Latta House Party event on Friday
Dunham also opened up about her surrogacy journey, saying she did not feel jealous that she had been unable to carry her baby herself.
The Taylor Swift close friend wrote that, instead, she felt a different kind of jealousy toward the baby, who had the opportunity to be held by someone she viewed as deeply reassuring and capable.
In an interview with The Sunday Times in June 2025, Dunham said she and Felber were in the process of “expanding” their family. She also described her hysterectomy as both “a grief” and “a relief.”
Dunham explained that she had expected to experience her fertility and menstrual cycle gradually declining, but instead faced what she called a sudden and definitive ending.
At the time, she said they were “in the process of expanding our family in new ways,” but declined to provide further details, explaining that she wanted to safely meet their child first.
Dunham married Peruvian-British musician Felber during a low-key ceremony in London in September 2021.
Felber previously revealed that a mutual friend arranged their blind date. The pair connected so quickly during their first meeting that, he said, they “didn’t stop talking for eight hours.”
The pair met in Covid-19 lockdown so for their first date they took a walk along the River Thames together at night as the pubs were shut at the time.
Dunham revealed her first words to their child: ‘Hello. I’m your mama. You look nothing like I thought you would, but exactly right. We’ve been waiting for you, do you know that? It was so nice of you to come’ (Above, Dunham and Felbeer are seen in London in September 2022)
Dunham married Peruvian-British musician Felber in a low-key London ceremony back in September 2021 (Above, the couple in New York back in June 2025)
Lena first revealed she was dating Felber during an interview with The New York Times back in April 2021.
‘It’s been a few months. I feel really lucky,’ she said, adding that Felber was, ‘the greatest person I’ve ever met.’
In 2018, Dunham had opened up about her decision to have a hysterectomy.
A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus, and often the cervix, fallopian tubes, and ovaries according to the Cleveland Clinic. The procedure completely and permanently prevents pregnancy.
Dunham said to Vogue in March 2018 that her decision came after ‘years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits’ and trying alternative treatments such as ‘pelvic floor therapy, massage therapy, pain therapy, color therapy, acupuncture and yoga’.
Doctors discovered she had other medical issues that were causing her pain during the procedure.
‘In addition to endometrial disease, an odd hump-like protrusion and a septum running down the middle, I have retrograde bleeding, a.k.a. my period running in reverse so that my stomach is full of blood,’ she wrote.
In 2018, actress and writer made the difficult decision to have a total hysterectomy to remove her uterus and cervix and an ovary after enduring years of endometriosis-related pain (Above, Dunham in October 2018)
Dunham was famously in a relationship with musician Jack Antonoff from 2012 to 2017 (Above, the former couple in February 2017)
‘My ovary has settled in on the muscles around the sacral nerves in my back that allow us to walk. Let’s please not even talk about my uterine lining. The only beautiful detail is that the organ — which is meant to be shaped like a light bulb — was shaped like a heart.’
Dunham said at the time that she was keen to explore other options to have a child as she explained: ‘I may have felt choiceless before, but I know I have choices now.’
Lena had previously dated musician Jack Antonoff from the bands fun and Bleachers as they broke up before she underwent her hysterectomy.
They had dated for five years from 2012 to 2017 before their split, which was described as ‘amicable’ at the time.
