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Penn Badgley Shares How Ex Blake Lively "Saved" Him
Penn Badgley knows you love to look back at his past romance with Blake Lively.
However, the Gossip Girl alum—who now shares son James, 4, and is currently expecting twins with wife Domino Kirke—recently admitted it was “the struggle” to have a romance that was so closely interwoven with their television characters.
“When you do a television show, you're doing it constantly because of the nature of that show,” Penn told Alex Cooper on the April 23 episode of Call Her Daddy. “You feel like you're constantly, even though no one may be actually asking you to do this, you feel like you're constantly needing to prove yourself in some manner. Otherwise, what are you doing? I mean, you know, what is the space?”
Of course, Penn’s difficulties went beyond simply the difference between his relationship with Blake and his character Dan’s relationship with Serena, he also spoke to how his lifestyle in general was impacted by the public’s perception of his character.
“There is not enough separation, I think, for anybody,” he continued. “You're seen as this person, you're called their name out on the street. You also constantly have to be that person at work, and I was 20. I was 21, 22, so I didn't have the emotional maturity to understand, to differentiate myself just in terms of self-worth.”
As he put it, “What people seemed to think of Dan seemed to be what people thought of me.”
Luckily, though, Penn has already emphasized that while his relationship with Blake—which ended in 2010, while Gossip Girl continued until 2012—didn’t make it through the entire series, they were very friendly exes on set.
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“I'm pretty sure we were exes for nearly half of the run of the entire series,” Penn explained on a September episode of his own podcast Podcrushed. “We were always very professional. We had to do all kinds of nutso stuff. Having a fake marriage by the end of it. I don't even think, in my memory, there was not one bit of strangeness. It wasn't even a thing.”
Keep reading to catch up with the rest of the Gossip Girl cast...
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Blake Lively
The actress, who portrayed It Girl Serena van der Woodsen, has been keeping very busy since the end of Gossip Girl. A few months prior to the 2012 finale, Lively tied the knot with actor Ryan Reynolds and they're now the proud parents to four kids: daughters James, Inez and Betty and son Olin, born in 2023. In recent years, she's starred in hit movies The Age of Adaline, The Shallows, A Simple Favor and The Rhythm Section.
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Penn Badgley
Lonely Boy no more! Following his run as Dan Humphrey (who, spoiler alert, was ultimately revealed to be Gossip Girl), Badgley has been making headlines for his turn as stalker Joe Goldberg on the hit Netflix series You.
On a more personal note, Badgley is also a married man. The actor tied the knot with Domino Kirke, the sister of Girls actress Jemima Kirke, in Feb. 2017. They welcomed their first baby together in August 2020. Of course, fans of GG remember Badgley and Lively dated during the show's early run before splitting in 2010.
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Leighton Meester
The actress—a.k.a. privileged Upper East Sider Blair Waldorf—has been making a splash in the comedy world in recent years, starring in ABC's Single Parents.
Meester married actor Adam Brody (aka The O.C.'s Seth Cohen) and they're parents of a daughter named Arlo, born in 2015, and a son born in 2020, whose name has not been revealed.
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Chace Crawford
For six seasons, viewers swooned over Crawford's character Nate Archibald. Since the 2012 finale, Crawford has starred in ABC's Blood & Oil, as well as films Eloise and All About Nina. Crawford now stars in the Amazon original series The Boys, renewed for a fifth and final season in May 2024.
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Ed Westwick
Westwick rose to fame as Chuck Bass and after hanging up his character's signature scarf, he went on to appear in 2013's Romeo & Juliet and star in 2015's short-lived ABC drama Wicked City. He also starred in the British TV series White Gold.
In the fall of 2017, the Los Angeles Police Department started an investigation into sexual assault allegations made by several women against Westwick, which he denied. In July 2018, the Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to prosecute Westwick after determining there wasn't enough evidence to file charges in two instances and a third accuser failed to cooperate with investigators.
For the last few years, Westwick has been a relationship with actress Amy Jackson. They announced their engagement in January 2024, marrying in Italy that August.
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Taylor Momsen
Little J has come a long way since her days trying to snag a place in Blair's crew. Momsen was just 14 when she starred as Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl, though she left the show in 2010 as music was her ultimate passion from an early age. She went on to form and front her band The Pretty Reckless when she was 17.
As for a potential return to acting? "I never say never anymore in life, especially now with all the curveballs the world is throwing everyone," she told E! at the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards, her first red carpet in five years. "But no immediate plans."
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Jessica Szohr
Szohr burst onto the Hollywood scene with her breakout role as Vanessa Abrams in GG. Since that time, the actress has appeared in films The Internship, Ted 2 and Two Night Stand. She's also been on TV shows Kingdom, Shameless and The Orville.
She gave birth to daughter Bowie Ella with hockey pro fiancé Brad Richardson in January 2021 and the pair went on to tie the knot in August 2024.
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Kristen Bell
Since the finale in 2012, the snarky narrator—who returned for the 2021 reboot—tied the knot with longtime love Dax Shepard, the pair welcoming daughter Lincoln in March 2013, followed by daughter Delta 21 months later. In the acting world, the actress starred in Hulu's Veronica Mars revival and NBC's The Good Place. Bell also fronted the Bad Moms films and voices Anna in Disney's Frozen and Frozen 2.
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Sebastian Stan
Remember when Bucky Barnes was on was on Gossip Girl? That's right, the actor appeared in 11 episodes of the CW series as bad boy Carter Baizen from 2007 to 2010 and dated Leighton Meester during that time.
Since his time on the show, Stan has become a household name thanks to his role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Captain America and Avengers films. He also starred on Disney+'s The Falcon and Winter Soldier opposite Anthony Mackie and in Hulu's Pam & Tommy.
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Hilary Duff
It's hard to believe it's been more than a decade since Duff made a guest appearance on GG. In her six-episode arc, she appeared as Hollywood star Olivia Burke, who sparked a romance with Dan while at NYU and infamously engaged in a threesome with the not-so-Lonely Boy and his BFF Vanessa.
Since then, Duff starred in her own hit TV series, Younger and How I Met Your Father. She was about to step back into Lizzie McGuire's platform sandals for a Disney+ revival, but it didn't work out due to differing creative visions.
In 2019, the "So Yesterday" singer married musician Matthew Koma, and they share daughters Banks, Mae and Townes. She's also mom to son Luca from her past marriage to Mike Comrie.
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