Lena Dunham welcomes baby daughter via surrogate

Lena Dunham, creator of the popular TV series Girls, has revealed she has welcomed her first child with husband Luis Felber through surrogacy. The 40-year-old writer and actress announced the birth of her daughter in an op-ed published by Vogue, where she expressed her joy, stating she was "bashful and dizzy with joy." Dunham has previously spoken about her fertility struggles, chronic illness, and grief surrounding her dreams of motherhood after undergoing a hysterectomy when she was 31 years old.

In the op-ed, Dunham described her quick connection with her surrogate, saying, "While I’ve been known to make friends quickly – airport terminals, veterinary offices – this was the quickest leap from first coffee to gynecological procedure I’d ever done." She shared the moment she met her daughter, who arrived "13 days late, in the face of a solar eclipse and a meteor shower."

Dunham recalled feeling overwhelmed as she sat on a hospital bed, waiting to see her baby for the first time. "I forgot to look down until I heard our baby’s cry. I saw her face, gasping just as she did. Her eyes, wide and unfocused, taking in the light and shadow, blinking rapidly."

Dunham has previously written about her experiences with endometriosis and its impact on her desire to have a family. In her memoir Famesick, she detailed the challenging process of extracting her eggs during the pandemic, describing herself as oscillating between wanting to adopt and wanting to locate a surrogate. In June 2025, Dunham and Felber were in the process of expanding their family, but were hesitant to discuss the details of how they planned to do so.

In a previous essay for Harper’s Magazine in 2020, Dunham expressed the irony that her inability to have a child herself might be the reason she deserves to be a parent.