Jemima Kirke - who plays Jessa Johansson in the HBO comedy series Girls - has revealed that she met her husband Michael Mosberg in rehab.
The 30-year-old actress and painter, who is the daughter of Free and Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke, told the Telegraph that she spent much of her teenage years living through ‘a bunch of profound and negative drug experiences’.
She said she had taken antidepressants since she was 18. "I need to be well to produce something that’s any good," she says about her paintings.
KIrke and former lawyer Mosberg (39) have two children, and she is also stepmother to her husband's daughter from a previous relationship. Mosberg is currently setting up a rehab centre near their home in Brooklyn.
The actress met Girls creator Lena Dunham at high school and later studied fine art at the Rhode Island School of Design. "But I went thinking that I could do whatever I wanted - and I got thrown out. Twice. I was an entitled little privileged brat."
The actress also revealed that she had an abortion at art school, without anaesthetic, as she could not pay for the necessary drugs. She revealed this aspect of her story last spring in a video for the Centre for Reproductive Rights’ Draw the Line Campaign, whose objective is to take away the stigma attendant upon abortion.
"Oh, they have been calling me a baby killer," she reveals. "But it doesn’t bother me what they say. The only tangible feedback I’ve had has been so positive. On the street, women pushing strollers say they loved it and thank you. And it is always women with kids. Always. "
Kirke married Mosberg in 2009 after they met during her second period in rehab, which was followed by AA meetings. She has begun to cautiously drink alcohol again during the past two years.
Jemima Kirke with her husband Michael Mosberg at the 2014 Golden Globes
‘I don’t believe that everyone who has an alcohol problem or a drug problem is an alcoholic or an addict. There is such a thing as a problem and not a “condition”, and I think that is what I had. People can drink and use drugs circumstantially, and people can change and outgrow behaviours."
The sixth and final season of Girls can be seen on Sky Atlantic on Monday nights. "You don’t realise how nice your job is until it’s going," said the actress.
Jemima attends a New York Fashion show last June
