Lena Dunham apologizes for her ‘comic use’ of ‘sexual predator’

Lena Dunham, who in recent days has been accused of sexually abusing her younger sister Grace Dunham based on excerpts from her memoir, apologized Tuesday for “the comic use of the term ‘sexual predator.’”

The “Girls” creator and star, in a statement written for Time, also said she was sorry if certain anecdotes in “Not That Kind of Girl” were “painful or triggering for people to read.”

“I am dismayed over the recent interpretation of events described in my book,” Dunham said, referring to stories on a couple of websites that highlighted passages from the book in which she described how she would bribe her young sister for long kisses and other attention and once spread open her 1-year-old sister’s vagina to examine it while the girl played in a driveway.

One excerpted sentence that stood out from the first excerpt: “Basically, anything a sexual predator might do to woo a small suburban girl, I was trying.”

The 28-year-old’s book came out Oct. 7. National Review posted its current cover story about her on its website last Wednesday, the same day Truth Revolt published a post with an accusatory headline.

The writer-actor-director had previously tweeted a response to critics while the topic was popping Saturday on Twitter, saying in part, “The right wing news story that I molested my little sister isn’t just LOL -- it’s really ... upsetting and disgusting. And by the way, if you were a little kid and never looked at another little kid’s vagina, well, congrats to you.”

Criticism of Dunham had expanded by Monday to include social-media users from all over the ideological spectrum rallying around a “#DropDunham” hashtag first intended to encourage Planned Parenthood to drop her as a spokeswoman, though “Girls” network HBO and “Not That Kind of Girl” publisher Random House were also called out.

By Tuesday afternoon the hashtag appeared to have morphed into a general indication that a person wasn’t defending the Golden Globe winner.

“I want to be very clear,” Dunham said in Time, “that I do not condone any kind of abuse under any circumstances.”

She also called Grace Dunham her “best friend” and said she everything she’d written about her sister was published with permission.

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