Penn Badgley Vulnerably Reveals His Marriage ‘Almost Ended’ After a Devastating Loss

Penn Badgley is shedding light on a painful period in his marriage to Domino Kirke. On the “Totally Booked With Zibby” podcast on Monday, November 17, the “Gossip Girl” actor shared that the couple nearly separated after suffering two consecutive miscarriages.

“Especially for us, me at that point, not having any biological children, my wife having her firstborn … that was a real inflection point,” Badgley, 39, said. “We did near a separation.”

The couple welcomed a son in August 2020 and later added twin boys to their family earlier this year. Kirke also has a 16-year-old son, Cassius, with ex Morgan O’Kane.

Actor Reflects on Losses in His New Essay Collection

Badgley previously wrote about their pregnancy losses in his October essay collection, Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age.

In it, he revealed how isolated the couple felt as they struggled privately.

“This was our second loss together, a time when I did not feel as though the cycle would break. My wife and I neared separation, as many do after losses like that, largely because we felt so isolated in a culture that doesn’t talk much about these things or know how to support those going through it,” he wrote.

He also described seeing their still baby on the sonogram. “Seeing our still baby in that tripped-out black and white sono imagery is a dreadful memory I can’t shake every time we go for a sonogram now.”

Badgley Says Life Looks Different Now With Three Children

Badgley said on the podcast that he wrote the essays before their twins arrived, back when the loss still felt close to the surface.

“And now I feel like I am, I mean this with love, but I feel like I’m drowning in children,” he joked. “So it’s harder to get in touch with that feeling of loss. Because my cup truly runneth over.”

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Kirke has spoken about her own side of the journey. In 2020, while announcing her pregnancy, she revealed that after two miscarriages, she had stopped trusting her body and had almost accepted that she was done trying.

“On the road again… pregnancy after loss is [a] whole other thing,” she wrote. “After two miscarriages in a row we were ready to call it. I stopped trusting my body and started to accept the fact that I was done.”

Kirke Reflects on Motherhood as Badgley Shares Rare Stepfather Insight

Kirke has spoken candidly about her journey, explaining that her work as a birth attendant helped her understand the grief she witnessed in others while moving through her own.

“You’re already teaching us how to stay in the day in a way we’ve never had to, little one. Thank you,” she wrote when announcing her pregnancy in 2020 (the post was later removed/deleted).

Badgley and Kirke first met in 2014, when Cassius was 5, and they married in 2017.

Badgley offered a rare reflection on stepfatherhood during a recent appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast.

“Any real parent figure is always going to be cringe to some degree, definitely,” he said. “But, I think there’s also — I am who I am, and I am not the most uncool stepparent you can have.”

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