Lena Dunham Apologizes After Defending ‘Girls’ Writer Accused of Sexual Assault

Lena Dunham apologized Saturday night for defending a writer and producer on Girls who was accused of sexual assault.

In a lengthy statement posted on her Twitter account on Saturday, Dunham said she never expected to defend someone accused of sexual assault, but she “naively” believed it was important to share her own perspective on her friend’s situation.

“I now understand that it was absolutely the wrong time to come forward with such a statement and I am so sorry. We have been given the gift of powerful voices and by speaking out we were putting the thumb on the scale and it was wrong,” Dunham wrote.

Dunham and Girls co-showrunner Jenni Konner had questioned the allegations against Murray Miller, a writer and producer on Girls. Deadline reported on Friday that actor Aurora Perrineau had filed a report with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department alleging Miller had assaulted her in 2012, when she was 17. Murray denied the allegations through his attorney, according to Deadline.

Dunham and Konner stood by Murray in a statement to Deadline, categorizing the allegation as one that was misreported.

“While our first instinct is to listen to every woman’s story, our insider knowledge of Murray’s situation makes us confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported every year. It is a true shame to add to that number, as outside of Hollywood women still struggle to be believed. We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue,” they said in their statement.