More than a decade after Gossip Girl defined a generation, star Penn Badgley is revisiting the emotional complexities of his off-screen romance with co-star Blake Lively—and how it blurred the lines between real life and television.

Penn and Blake’s Romance: On-Screen and Off

From 2007 to 2010, Penn Badgley and Blake Lively were not only portraying Gossip Girl’s beloved couple, Dan Humphrey and Serena van der Woodsen, but they were also dating in real life. Now married to singer Domino Kirke, Penn reflected on that period during a new interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper.

“There Was Not Enough Separation Between Me and Dan”

When asked about the emotional overlap between his personal life and playing Dan, Penn admitted that it was a major struggle.

“There is not enough separation, I think, for anybody,” he said. “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 didn’t have the emotional maturity to understand, to differentiate myself just in terms of self-worth.”

Penn highlighted the challenges of working on a long-running TV show versus a film.

“When you do a film, you do it once. You give it your all, and then you move on,” he explained. “Television is constant. You’re doing it for years. Combine that with celebrity culture at the time, and you’re always trying to prove yourself. You can lose sight of who you really are.”

A Relationship That May Have “Saved” Him

This isn’t the first time Penn has opened up about Blake’s positive influence. In 2023, he told Variety that Blake helped him avoid falling deeper into personal turmoil.

“Blake didn’t drink, and I think our relationship in some ways saved me from forcing myself to go down that road,” he shared, describing his early 20s as a time of emotional despair.

Post-Breakup Professionalism

Despite their breakup, Penn previously noted that he and Blake maintained a professional working relationship during the remainder of Gossip Girl’s run.

“We were exes for nearly half the run of the show… but it was never weird,” he said in a 2024 episode of his podcast Podcrushed. “There wasn’t one bit of strangeness. It wasn’t even a thing.”

Then vs. Now

While Blake Lively has since married Ryan Reynolds, and Penn has settled into married life himself, their time on Gossip Girl remains a focal point in pop culture.

Penn’s recent reflections serve as a candid reminder of the pressures of young fame—and how, sometimes, personal identity can get lost in a scripted world.