The lead stars of the CW show Gossip Girl, including Blake Lively and Penn Badgley, have been pretty vocal about their experience on the TV series. And it appears that the show acted as one of the catalysts for the demise of their relationship, which ended after a run of three years.
The Shallows actress revealed that one of the main reasons behind their decision to split up was the constant overlapping of their personal and professional lives. She shared that the Gossip Girl creators wanted the lead stars to date each other for their show’s narrative.
CW tried to capitalize on Blake Lively and Penn Badgley’s relationship for Gossip Girl
Black Lively has been outspoken about her experience in the CW show Gossip Girl and has revealed how the show tried to capitalize on her relationship with the You star Penn Badgley. In the beginning, when the two co-stars were tuning in and finally romantically inclined with each other, they tried to keep their relationship private as they thought it would come out as unprofessional.
But the actress quickly realized that the studio was trying to get them to date each other so they could capitalize on their relationship and use the narrative for the show’s success. Blake Lively stated,
“We were like, ‘Oh no, that’s exactly what they want.’ They wanted us all to date. They wanted us all to wear the same clothes that we were wearing on the show. They wanted that because then it fed their whole narrative. People could buy into this world.”
But their relationship didn’t last long, as they both realized that their personal lives were overlapping with their work and the duo eventually parted ways. But even though the couple split up, they kept it under wraps for a long period and didn’t let the studios know about it.
The studios weren’t aware that the couple had broken up
Although the Gossip Girl stars parted their ways long before the end of season 2 of Gossip Girl, the studios were unaware of the fact for months. The producer of the show, Joshua Safran later responded to the news and stated that they were bewildered after realizing that the two had broken up, as they were left in the shadows for months. He stated,
“The shocking thing was, I found out on the set of the season 2 finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before. They kept it from everybody, which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their drama to relate to the show.”
And it appears, that in the end, the studio’s tactic to keep the two in a relationship to spice up their narrative eventually resulted in their separation. Both the Gossip Girl stars found themselves struggling with their professional and personal lives overlapping and mutually decided to part ways.
Gossip Girl is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Source: Vanity Fair
