Lena Dunham has revealed she’s gearing up for the next big chapter – starting a family with husband Luis Felber.
The Girls creator, 38, has kept relatively quiet about her hopes to become a parent after she underwent a hysterectomy in 2018.
The 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.
But now, in a new update, Lena has said she and Luis, 37, are hoping to expand their family and they dream of raising their kids in the UK countryside.
‘I thought I would have the opportunity to experience my fertility and my cycle waning and it never was. Instead it was a very quick, sharp cut-off,’ she explained to The Sunday Times: of her hysterectomy.
‘I will say we’re in the process of expanding our family in new ways,’ she added, but she would not expkand on the comment, simply explaining: ‘I want to safely meet our children and then figure out how to talk about it.’
Lena Dunham has revealed she’s gearing up for the next big chapter – starting a family with husband Luis Felber
Lena also gushed of her dreams for a future in the UK, revealing: ‘In the long term, our big dream is to have a farm situation in the countryside.
‘And children with British accents skipping off to school in little hats and uniforms. It’s too charming!’
Lena, who married Luis – a Peruvian-British musician – in a low-key London ceremony in 2021, has built a quieter life since she stepped out of the spotlight.
After moving from New York to the UK, the couple have filled their time with adopting pets, which include two pigs alongside painting and walking around Hampstead.
But Lena is firmly back on screens this summer with Too Much, her new Netflix series loosely based on her own life.
The show follows an eccentric New Yorker who moves to London post-breakup and falls for an indie rocker.
Luis – who used to play guitar for bands and artists including Jamie T – plays a key part in the show too, credited as writer, executive producer and composer.
His role was also to oversee the male character Felix (played by Will Sharpe) and to make sure he was portrayed in the most authentic way.
Lena added that had she met her husband in her twenties, he would have left her heartbroken.
She joked: ‘Whenever I look at old photos of Lou, I just think he would have ruined my life in my twenties.
The 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
Lena previously said that her decision to have a hysterectomy came after ‘years of complex surgeries measuring in the double digits’
‘We would have spent an afternoon together and it would have been the best time of my life and I never would have heard from him again. And then he would have popped up six months later being like, ‘I’m back from tour.’
The pair now split their time between London and a home next door to her parents’ place in Connecticut, where her beloved pigs currently live.
Lena previously stated that her decision to have a hysterectomy 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.
She told Vogue: ‘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.
The actress who is back with her new show Too much Lena added that had she met her husband in her twenties, he would have left her heartbroken and joked she would ‘never have heard from him again’
‘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.’
As well as having her uterus and cervix removed, Lena also had an ovary removed and attempted IVF after learning her ‘one remaining ovary was still producing eggs,’ she previously recalled in a piece for Harper’s Magazine.
The bid ended up being unsuccessful as none of the eggs ended up being viable.
‘There is a lot you can correct in life – you can end a relationship, get sober, get serious, say sorry – but you can’t force the universe to give you a baby that your body has told you all along was an impossibility,’ she said in the Harper’s article.
