Lena Dunham is known for creating, writing and starring in HBO's sitcom 'Girls,' which is known for comically depicting the awkward and personal situations a woman in her early 20's can go through, but the actress recently recalled one of her own experiences that is no laughing matter.

Lena dUNHAM
Dunham recalls the incident in her memoir

Dunham opens up about being date raped at college in her memoir 'Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned,"' but she recently admitted that this was one subject she was apprehensive about sharing.

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"There were a few things in this book that I was terrified to put into the world," she said in an interview on Fresh Air. "The chapter about date rape in the book was a really, really terrifying thing for me to put into the world."

"It was a painful experience physically and emotionally, and one I spent a long time trying to reconcile," Dunham continued. "At the time that it happened, it wasn't something that I was able to be honest about. I was able to share pieces, but I sort of used the lens of humor, which has always been my default mode, to try to talk around it."

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Dunham was physically hurt in the aftermath of the incident, but chose not to pursue any legal action because she was left feeling "scared" and "ashamed."

"I spent so much time scared. I spent so much time ashamed, I don't feel that way anymore," she said. "And it's not because of my job, it's not because of my boyfriend, it's not because of feminism, though all those things helped, it's because I told the story. And I still feel like myself and I feel less alone."

Lena Dunham
Dunham feels a sense of relief now she has opened up about her experience

Dunham also remembers recalling the experience to her friend and laughing at her when she told the 28 year-old actress that she had been raped. "[I] later felt this incredible gratitude for her for giving me that, giving me that gift of that kind of certainty that she had," she said. "I think that a lot of times when I felt at my lowest about it, those words in some way actually lifted me up because I felt that somebody was justifying the pain of my experience."

The Golden Globe-winner dramatically changed during her time at college after the incident, she withdrew socially and stopped going to parties. "I really removed myself from that world. I don't know if I would've told you at the time, 'Oh, I'm doing this to keep myself safe,' but obviously in hindsight. I basically removed myself from the social world as I'd known it," she said.