Who Is Penn Badgley's Wife, Domino Kirke?

Get to know Penn Badgley's longtime love.

Penn Badgley's wife Domino Kirke is worthy of obsession—but not Joe Goldberg levels, which as You fans know, could get really terrifying. Badgley and Kirke are madly in love and welcomed a baby boy in August 2020; their relationship is much healthier than his onscreen character's obsessions.

In real life, Badgley is also light years away from his breakout role as brooding (if secretive) "Lonely Boy" Dan Humphrey on Gossip Girl. With a professional life overflowing with acting gigs and charitable work, the happily married Badgley's life is more like a fairy tale.

Here's the scoop on Penn Badgley's marriage, fatherhood and dating history.

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Is Penn Badgley married?

Yep, Badgley is off the market. He and Kirke tied the knot in 2017 and are madly in love. For proof, check out the gooey birthday love note he penned for her on Instagram in 2019. "A truly radiant soul, you seem to spark alight almost everyone you meet, like a 99% success rate," he wrote next to a silly video of her frolicking in the snow. "You encourage others to be honest, and brave, and gentle, and expansive. Your great capacity for empathy is obvious, something anyone can get warm by like a glowing stove." Badgley ended the mash note with a heart-melting kicker: "For you, I always hope to be a source of joy. I’m really glad we’re married." Swoon.

Who is Penn Badgley's wife? 

London-born Domino Kirke comes from a famous (and fascinating) family. Her younger sisters are actresses: Jemima Kirke co-starred on the HBO show Girls as free-spirited Jessa and portrays headmistress Hope Haddon on the new season of Sex Education, while Lola Kirke appeared in Gone Girl, played oboist Hailey Rutledge on Mozart in the Jungle and co-starred as Tracy in Noah Baumbach’s Mistress America.

Related: Jemima Kirke on the Many Forms of Love in All These Small Moments

Domino, meanwhile, followed in the musical footsteps of their dad—Simon Kirke, the drummer for British rock groups Bad Company and Free—by studying classical voice and piano at NYC's LaGuardia High School. She parlayed that experience into a professional career that's included being in a band called DOMINO, which toured with Lily Allen and Gang of Four, and releasing a 2017 solo album, Beyond Waves.

In addition to loving music, Kirke is also passionate about pregnancy. She teamed up with Samantha Huggins and Lindsey Bliss to open a professional doula service called Carriage House Birth, and has worked with such celebrity clients as Amy Schumer. "I feel like the role of the doula is to help a woman stay present and feel safe, just by being there, holding space for her and being a familiar face during an experience that can be so shapeshifting," Kirke said in a Headspace interview. "To be a constant and a calming presence; that one person who’s like an emotional touchstone."

How old is Penn Badgley's wife?

Badgley certainly isn't intimidated by any age differences in relationships. Kirke was born on Dec. 17, 1983—nearly three years before he was born, on Nov. 1, 1986.

How did Penn Badgley meet his wife?

Badgley and Kirke are private about their romance, so it's unclear exactly how and when they met. However, the couple went public with their relationship in 2014 with some PDA-packed appearances—and haven't looked back.

"They've been dating for a while. They have a number of mutual friends. It is a very mature and free relationship," a source told Us Weekly in July 2014, noting the pair have music and interests in common. Fittingly, Kirke was spotted attending a show by Badgley's band, MOTHXR, while he returned the favor and tweeted about the release of one of her singles in 2015.

Years later, after the pair were married, Kirke confirmed she and Badgley were rather low-key early on. "Penn and I were dating, but it wasn’t nearly as serious as it is now, of course," she told HeyMama after tying the knot. "I didn’t think marriage was in the cards for us."

Still, Badgley credits his practice of the Bahá’í faith for helping to put him on the path down the aisle. “I don’t think I could truly value human love until I developed divine love,” he told PEOPLE in 2018. “[Domino and I] very much had a romantic beginning, and I think that you discover in marriage that what sustains a marriage for decades—there are less and less people who can tell us this—but I think it has something to do with [divine] love.”

When did Penn Badgley get married?

Badgley and Kirke actually had two separate weddings. On Feb. 27, 2017, the couple got hitched at a courthouse in Brooklyn, New York. Domino sported a short-sleeved white lace dress, while Badgley opted for a smart navy blue suit and black tie. They later threw a second, star-studding wedding in upstate New York on June 24, 2017. For that occasion, she wore multiple fancy frocks, including a romantic beige-colored sleeveless dress with a draped-lace overlay that revealed her tattoo-covered arms.

Where did Penn Badgley get married?

Although Badgley and Kirke decided to keep things casual for their first wedding—they had a civil ceremony at the courthouse in front of 40 people—the couple did have a post-nuptials nosh with family and friends at Brooklyn's Maison-May restaurant. The couple's second wedding reception was a far fancier affair. Two hundred guests—including celebrities such as Zac Posen, Debra Messing and Mariska Hargitay—gathered in Waccabuc, New York, on a property owned by Kirke's mom, Lorraine.

Does Penn Badgley have a child?

When Badgley and Kirke got married, he adopted Cassius Riley, her young son with the musician Morgan O’Kane. Kirke later praised Badgley's skills as a stepdad. “He doesn’t have to be ‘dad’ so he can have more fun with him," Kirke told Us Weekly in 2019. "It’s really nice. The stepparent thing is definitely uncharted territory for me ’cause I didn’t grow up with one, but … he takes care of him really well.”

Badgley and Kirke also have a son named James born in August 2020. The couple were open about their fertility struggles upon announcing they were expecting, noting they had experienced several miscarriages. "Pregnancy after loss is whole other thing," Kirke wrote on Instagram. "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. As a birth attendant, I've seen and heard it all. It takes everything I've got to detach lovingly from the losses I've been present for and be in my own experience."

Kirke did credit her work as a doula for helping the couple weather these challenges. "When I was pregnant at 25, I knew nothing," Kirke wrote on Instagram. "I had no community. I dove in blissfully unaware about birth and its mysteries. Now, with 10 years worth of experience to pull from, I treasure my birth community and the knowledge I have."

Who has Penn Badgley dated? 

Prior to marrying Kirke, Badgley had a few famous flames. He and his Gossip Girl co-star Blake Lively dated between 2007 and 2010.

After splitting with Lively, Badgley rebounded in 2011 with another celeb, actress Zoë Kravitz, whose parents are actress Lisa Bonet and musician Lenny Kravitz. This relationship ended two years later with the pair "on good terms," a source told Us Weekly. In fact, it "wasn't a sad breakup," the insider added—just a case where the timing wasn't right: "They are at two different stages in their careers. They just didn't have time for each other."

How did Penn Badgley and Blake Lively meet?

Badgley and Lively met and started dating on the set of Gossip Girl. In a case of art imitating life, however, their characters on the show—Serena van der Woodsen and Dan Humphrey—were also romantically linked. Adorable, right? Maybe not to the spotlight-averse Lively, who told Vanity Fair in 2017 she was worried about her IRL dating encroaching on the fictional Gossip Girl universe.

"I remember there was one point where we were just afraid of how our personal lives overlapping our work life could be perceived by our bosses," she said. "[But then] we were like, ‘Oh no, that’s exactly what they want.’ They wanted us all to date. They wanted us all to wear the same clothes that we’re wearing on the show. They wanted that, because then it fed their whole narrative. People could buy into this world.”

Related: Gossip Girl Stars' Real-Life Loves 

Are Penn Badgley and Blake Lively still friends?

When Badgley and Lively broke up in 2010, they remained on good enough terms that even their castmates had no idea they split. "They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now," executive producer Joshua Safran told Vanity Fair. "I don’t even know how they did it. They kept it from everybody which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show.”

However, Badgley famously didn't send Lively a wedding gift when she married Ryan Reynolds in 2012 and, in the ensuing years, the exes' lives diverged. Back in 2015, Badgley told HuffPost Live that he and Lively hadn't "spoken in a while," although it wasn’t due to any sort of anger. "There's an amicable silence, if that makes any sense," he explained. Both Badgley and Lively are busy raising families; the latter now has three children.

Next, see Penn Badgley and Meghan Trainor team up on TikTok.