Penn Badgley says it was a ‘struggle’ to date Blake Lively during their Gossip Girl days: ‘I’ve been on one date in my life’

Penn Badgley on dating Blake Lively

Badgley and Lively started dating when their on-screen characters, Dan and Serena, also began romancing on the show. When asked about his relationship with Lively and if he was “able to separate” his “actual job from reality,” Badgley responded, “I mean, that’s a great question because it was the struggle.” The actor explained, “When you do a television show, you’re doing it constantly, because of the nature of that show and the celebrity culture at the time.” Badgley revealed how he was frequently interviewed about his dating life back in the day.

He then admitted, “I think I’ve been on one date in my life,” revealing that he either was always in a relationship or completely out of the scene. He remembered constantly feeling unsure, always needing to prove himself. “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?” “What starts to happen when you’re in this one role for a long time, 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,” he said. For him, the existence of Dan became exhausting and overwhelming.

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Badgley was just 12 when he started in the entertainment industry. According to him, he was “financially independent” when he reached 15. But the achievement came with a cost. While speaking to Cooper, the actor said that he was quite young and emotionally unprepared during this time. “I didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand, to differentiate myself just in terms of self-worth,” he shared. He didn’t lose himself completely, but it took a mental toll. “What people seemed to think of Dan seemed to be what people thought of me, it bothered me.”

Badgley and Lively were in a relationship from 2007 to 2010, while Gossip Girl ran from 2007 to 2012. Even after their breakup, they stayed professional and kept things drama-free on set. “I’m pretty sure we were exes for nearly half of the run of the entire series,” he said on his Podcrushed podcast last year. “We were always very professional… 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.”

Lively is now married to Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, while Badgley got married to Domino Kirke. In 2023, Penn admitted in an interview with Variety that his sudden rise to fame came mostly because of Gossip Girl and his relationship with the actor. “Beyond our relationship, I don’t think anybody was going to be interested in me publicly,” he said.

Is there going to be a YOU season 6?

No, the fifth season of YOU will close the book on Joe Goldberg. The new season picks up three years after Joe and Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) left London for New York City to live a happily ever after, only to be haunted by Joe’s shady past. Speaking about the show, Badgley said in a recent Tudum interview in New York, “Every season they manage to find new space to make it interesting and relevant,” adding, “And this season, I think somehow coming back to where it started allowed for it to just become grounded in the way that it needs to also have this kind of spectacular finish.”

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