Domino Kirke’s Father’s Day Tribute to Penn Badgley

Kirke’s Instagram post, accompanied by a photo of the actor rocking a child to sleep, served as a stark contrast to her own upbringing. Reflecting on a childhood with a father she described as emotionally distant, she admitted she once conditioned herself to expect little from men. She noted that meeting Badgley dismantled her need to maintain total control, eventually teaching her that she could rely on a partner. The couple, who married in 2017, now share a household that includes their son born in 2020, twin boys born in 2025, and Kirke’s son from a previous relationship.

While the divorce remark was intended as a joke, the couple has weathered genuine crises. In his essay collection, Crushmore, Badgley revealed that the pair nearly separated following two miscarriages. He recounted the profound isolation they felt while mourning, exacerbated by a culture that often leaves grieving parents without a support system. Despite those past fractures, the pair has remained a fixture in each other's lives since they first began dating in 2014. Badgley has often spoken about the challenges of balancing his real-life role as a father of four with his chilling portrayal of Joe Goldberg on the Netflix series YOU, admitting that the character became increasingly difficult to play once he started his own family.