Penn Badgley Reveals He Parents His Son & Stepson in ‘Very Different’ Ways

While he works hard to cover up murders (and fix other disasters) onscreen, Penn Badgley works even harder as a dad to two kids with wife Domino Kirke. The You star opened up about fatherhood in a new interview, where he admitted to parenting his son and his stepson in two “very different” ways.

Before you put Badgley on blast Gossip Girl-style for the discrepancy, know that it’s actually totally normal to adjust your parenting style to fit your kids’ needs. After all, no two kids are alike, so parenting can’t be exactly the same either!   

In Wednesday’s episode of the New York Times’ Modern Love podcast, per E! News, the 37-year-old said that his parenting style is “very different” between his 3-year-old son James with Kirke and his 15-year-old stepson Cassius, who Kirke shares with ex Morgan O’Kane. “I have an interesting situation where I have a biological son and a stepson,” he said. “And my stepson is — his father is very much in his life, so his father is his father, and I’m something else.”

It makes a lot of sense. Since Cassius has a dad and a mom, Badgley has more of a backseat in raising the teen (not to mention teenagers are more self-sufficient than toddlers anyway); whereas, he has to be fully hands-on with his 3-year-old.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful dimension of life,” he said in the podcast about spending time with his teen stepson. “There’s joy often.”

In 2019, Kirke gushed about Badgley’s role as a stepdad to her son, who was just 10 at the time. “He’s a really good stepdad,” the singer and doula told Us Weekly. “He doesn’t have to be ‘Dad’ so he can have more fun with him. 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.”

Last year, the Podcrushed podcast host opened up about his “wild” experience with fatherhood on The Tonight Show. “Well, you know he’s a pandemic kid,” Penn said about his son, per E! News. “So that is, anybody who has kids [knows], it’s a joy, it’s an immense — I mean, it’s wild. It’s lovely. It’s great. It’s a challenge.”

“Shout-out to all the parents. Keep going! Keep it going, it gets better,” he added.

Before you go, check out these celebs who are close with their stepkids.