Penn Badgley makes very rare comment about 'struggle' of dating Blake Lively

Guess what, Upper East Siders; Penn Badgley is finally opening up about his former real-life love interest – Blake Lively.

Both actors are known and adored for their on-screen love affair as Dan Humphrey and Serena van der Woodsen in the hit teen drama Gossip Girl, which aired for six seasons between 2007 and 2012.

Any true Upper East Sider knows, their love story continued even when the cameras stopped rolling. However, the relationship was a ‘struggle’, because the pair's life became so interwoven with their television characters.

Badgley appeared on the 23 April episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast and he spilled all the details about the ups and downs of dating a co-star with host Alex Cooper.

Blake Lively and Penn Badgley in 2009 (REUTERS/Alamy Stock Photo)

After many, many years of radio silence about the relationship, Badgley finally gave fans a few tidbits about the romance. Life imitated art far too closely it seems, as the 38-year-old star was also living in New York City where the show about pompous Manhattan teens was filmed.

Cooper asked if he could ‘separate’ his job from his personal life, or whether it ‘merged’.

“I mean, that's a great question because it was the struggle,” he confessed. “When you do a television show, you're doing it constantly.”

And don’t think Badgely is unaware of fans being unable to separate him from Dan – as his celebrity status grew, it became a struggle for everyone. We can all be glad the same hasn’t happened with cold-blooded serial killer Joe Goldberg.

Penn Badgley and Blake Lively dated IRL (The CW)

“What starts to happen when you're in this one role for a long time — the aspect of celebrity being a part of it, a huge part of it — there is not enough separation, I think, for anybody,” he shared. “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 revealed that in his early 20s, he did not have the 'emotional maturity to understand how to differentiate' himself from his character 'in terms of self-worth'.

Badgley has embraced daddy duties with indie music darling Domino Kirke, 41. The married couple share a four-year-old son, and word is the youngster will soon become a big brother to twins. That’s right, Badgley's next chapter is being a father of three.

Lively meanwhile has her own family saga: she tied the knot with actor Ryan Reynolds, 48, in 2012 and now they’re the parents to four children: daughters James, 10, Inez, eight, Betty, five, and son Olin, two.

Turns out, not every Upper East Side love story ends in forever. And for both Badgley and Lively, happily ever after was with someone entirely different.

XOXO.