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Penn Badgley<\/a> is getting candid about his parental role, being both a father and stepfather in his marriage to\u00a0Domino Kirke.<\/span><\/p>\n The actor recently sat down for a chat on the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/em>‘\u00a0<\/span>Modern Love<\/em> podcast<\/a>, and reflected on his role as a father to his 3-year-old son — whom he shares with Kirke — and a stepfather to Kirke’s 15-year-old son, Cassius.<\/span><\/p>\n “I have an interesting situation where I have a biological son and a stepson,” shared Badgley, who tied the knot with Kirke in 2017, after they began dating in 2014.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to Badgley, when it comes to Cassius, “His father is very much in his life — so his father is his father, and I’m something else.”<\/span><\/p>\n “So I have two different kind of parental roles,” Badgley explained. “My biological son is only 3 and a half. So, that’s a very different thing, too. I need to be able to more consciously show him my vulnerability as he gets older in those years.”<\/span><\/p>\n Badgley said that, since Cassius is a teenager, he “doesn’t want to spend that much time with us anyway.” But that has also made it something of a challenge to form a bond.<\/span><\/p>\n That being said, Badgley credited the 2014 Tom Cruise sci-fi action epic <\/span>Edge of Tomorrow<\/span><\/em> for giving them an opportunity to connect.<\/span><\/p>\n “I just knew it was important. It was like the stars had aligned so that my wife and my youngest son were asleep, and I was just like, ‘This is a good time to do this! You’re not going to play video games now. We’re going to do this!'” he recalled. “He loved it.”<\/span><\/p>\n As for his marriage to Kirke, <\/span>Badgley spoke out in February 2023<\/a> about how his relationship and his dedication to fidelity led him to ask the showrunner on his hit Netflix drama-thriller You to limit his intimate scenes as much as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n “I asked Sera Gamble,\u00a0creator of the show, ‘Can I just do no more intimacy scenes?’ This is actually a decision I had made before I took the show…\u00a0I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it publicly, but it\u2019s… one of the main things is, like, ‘Do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m just always romantic lead?'”\u00a0Badgley revealed\u00a0on the\u00a0<\/span>Podcrushed<\/i><\/a>\u00a0podcast last year.<\/span><\/p>\n “Fidelity in every relationship —\u00a0and especially in my marriage —\u00a0is important to me,” he said of doing the scenes.\u00a0“I said to Sera, like, ‘My desire would be zero — to go from 100 to zero.'”<\/span><\/p>\n Badgley acknowledged,\u00a0“I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You know, you can’t take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept, so, ‘How much less can you make it?’ was my question to them.”<\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately, according to Badgley, Gamble was understanding. \u201cShe didn’t even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest, and she was sort of I want to say almost,\u00a0like, empowered. She had a really positive response. She appreciated my directness and she appreciated that I was also being reasonable and practical.”<\/span><\/p>\n