Penn Badgley Swore Off Sex Scenes. His Wife Says It Was Not Her Idea: ‘He Decided to Do This for Mental Health Reasons’

By Zack Sharf

Zack Sharf

Digital News Director

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Penn Badgley infamously swore off sex scenes before the production of “You” Season 4, revealing on a viral episode of his “Podcrushed” podcast in Feb. 2013 that he told showrunner Sera Gamble he was no longer interested in filming intimate scenes on camera. The actor then told Variety later that same month that “it’s important to me in my real life to not have” sex scenes, clarifying: “My fidelity in my relationship. It’s important to me.”

Cut to more than three years later and Badgley’s wife, Domino Kirke-Badgley, is speaking out after spending all this time being accused online of blocking her husband from doing sex scenes. When Badgley cited his marriage as a reason he did not want to act in sex scenes anymore, social media was quick to come for Kirke-Badgley, even though Penn had cited her as the reason he even accepted the lusty lead role in “You” in the first place.

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