The Scary Medical Condition Penn Badgley Was Born With

Penn Badgley has been candid about his struggles with fame since he made his big breakthrough in the CW's hit teen series "Gossip Girl." The actor, who played Dan Humphrey, admitted he felt overwhelmed by his newfound success and the pressure that comes with suddenly having a massive platform. On Rainn Wilson's "Baha'i Blogcast" podcast in 2021, Badgely explained, "I was completely overwhelmed by being conscious of how many likes or retweets or whatever [that I got]. It was such a convoluted way to be like, 'acting.'" He also opened up about his mental health struggles amid the intensity of being in the spotlight. He recalled experiencing an anxiety attack while he was in Manila doing a press tour for his Netflix show "You." "I was coming to terms with having lived half of my life at least in some kind of public eye. I felt the blessings descending, but it was in the form of an anxiety attack and it was pretty intense," he said.

Throughout his career, Badgley has never shied away from speaking openly about his life and personal struggles. In 2023, the actor also revealed details about a medical condition he used to have that sounded as scary and serious as it actually was. He opened up about its lasting impact on him and how it helped shape many different aspects of his life, including his faith and being a father to his son James.

On the "HypochondriActor" podcast hosted by Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali, Penn Badgley opened up about the scary medical condition he had as a baby, as he was born two months premature. He revealed that he had a malfunction in his heart and lungs that required constant resuscitation and close monitoring, causing him to spend weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. "My heart and lungs would stop repeatedly throughout the day, so I was on my heart monitor," he said. Badgley added that his mother had to learn how to resuscitate him "viscerally" once he was ready to be discharged from the hospital. "The first time she had to do it was on the way home from the hospital," he shared. "[The doctors] basically said, 'This will happen immediately, so you're going to have to.' And [it occurred] until about [the age of] 1."

While it's not clear which medical condition the actor was born with, many premature infants experience a similar health problem called apnea, which happens when newborns stop breathing for short periods of time and experience a drop in the heart rate. While it can sometimes affect even full-term newborns, apnea occurs in most pre-term babies and can happen once or multiple times daily. However, it usually goes away on its own with time; most infants "outgrow" apnea by the time they reach 36 weeks or about a year old. For Badgley, "it sort of like... it just faded away." 

During his appearance on the "HypochondriActor" podcast, Penn Badgley also spoke out about the effects his condition had on him as he grew older. For one, he said it made him extremely sensitive to touch. "I just noticed that in my life, and I realized later that it's probably pretty significant," said Badlgey, who added, "And I'm sort of I'm kind of like bird boned, like I'm smaller than my father a bit." It also impacted his spirituality and the way he views death. Badgley told hosts Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali that he wasn't scared of dying. "That sounds weird to say, but... there's some aspect to that where I feel like there's a gravity to the earliest experiences I had... like I can have a mode that is very solitary and meditative," he explained. 

Badgley said it was through his son James that he realized just how much his condition actually affected him. "I started to think throughout the first year [of my son's life], like, if that was me, I was constantly flatlining," said the actor, who shares a son with wife, singer, and doula, Domino Kirke. The two — who've been married since 2017 — welcomed their child in September 2020 after two consecutive miscarriages. "It affected my sense of what life is like, what life is not like," he said while reflecting on his condition. "My toddler is so joyful, and I think I might've been too, but it would mark him."