Penn Badgley Shares What It Was Really Like Filming ‘Gossip Girl’ with Ex Blake Lively After IRL Breakup

Sometimes we forget that Gossip Girl alums Penn Badgley and Blake Lively dated IRL. (FYI, the duo also played onscreen love interests.) But yes, they had a short-lived relationship—and according to the You actor, things remained pretty cordial between them, even after they broke up.

In a new episode of the Podcrushed podcast, Badgley, 36, reunites with his onscreen younger sister from Gossip Girl, Taylor Momsen, 30. In the original series (which first premiered in 2007) Badgley and Momseon played Dan and Jenny Humphrey, respectively. 

While on the pod, Badgley recalls working with Lively and playing an onscreen couple, despite their relationship being a huge contrast once the cameras stopped rolling. Lively played Serena van der Woodsen in the original Gossip Girl, who has a complicated relationship with Dan throughout the series run.

“From my memory, I’m pretty sure we were exes for nearly half of the run of the entire series,” Badgley says. “It lasted for nearly six years and I don’t think we were together longer than two? Something like that.”

And you might think portraying a couple (and doing a fake wedding) with your ex-girlfriend might be a tad bit awkward, but Badgley says otherwise.

“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,” he adds.