The Glaring Red Flag Blake Lively And Ex Penn Badgley Would Never Last

He was Lonely Boy and she was the It Girl, but somehow, Penn Badgley and Blake Lively made it work, both on and off screen. The "Gossip Girl" co-stars dated during the show's heyday, and while they didn't end up as real-life Dan and Serena, their romance still had a good run. Per Badgley, though, it was doomed from the start — mainly because he couldn't untangle himself from his own character.

Speaking on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, the actor opened up about what it was like having his first major public relationship, admitting that he had trouble separating himself from Dan Humphrey. "When you do a television show, you're doing it constantly because of the nature of that show. ... You feel like you're constantly needing to prove yourself in some manner. Otherwise, what are you doing? I mean, what is the space?" he explained. The "You" star also went on to admit that at the time, he wasn't mature enough to figure out where Dan ended and he began. "What starts to happen when you're in this one role for a long time ... there is not enough separation, I think, for anybody. 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 added. "What people seemed to think of Dan seemed to be what people thought of me."

Still, there are no hard feelings. The exes have both moved on — Badgley married singer Domino Kirke and Lively wrote a shady love story with Ryan Reynolds. Plus, Badgley credits Lively with keeping him from going completely off the rails back then. According to him, the "It Ends With Us" star kept Lonely Boy from being so lonely.

As it turns out, there's another downside to dating someone who became as high-profile as rumored diva Blake Lively: total invisibility. In an interview with Variety, Penn Badgley said that during the time they were an item, all eyes were on her — and almost none on him. "Beyond our relationship, I don't think anybody was going to be interested in me publicly," he said. Not that he minded too much, of course. Badgley admitted he was fighting some inner demons at the time, and in many ways, Lively practically acted as his anchor. "I never struggled with substance," he continued. "Blake didn't drink, and I think our relationship in some ways saved me from forcing myself to go down that road."

After about three years together, Badgley and Lively eventually called it quits. But since "Gossip Girl" waits for no breakup, they still had to play lovebirds onscreen. And miraculously, there was no awkwardness (at least none viewers could clock anyway). They stayed professional, continued their romance for the cameras, and kept it moving.

In the end, though, Badgley realized that the show both bonded them and broke them. "I don't know if I can distill it into a sentence, or even articulate it. We were very much caught up in the show, which itself was a six-year endurance test," he dished to Elle. "Our relationship was a part of that and helped us through it. I mean, like anything valuable, it was good and it was bad and it was a learning experience."