17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Who is You star Penn Badgley's wife Domino Kirke?
Everyone's favourite fictional erotomaniac Joe Goldberg, from the Netflix series You , is gearing up to return to our screens this April. Netflix confirmed on its website that the fifth and final season of the show will take it 'back to where it all began' and culminate in a 'delightfully twisted conclusion'.
Penn Badgley will return to play Joe alongside his on-screen partner, Call the Midwife actress Charlotte Ritchie, who plays Kate. And while theirs is far from a perfect relationship, Badgley says his real-life marriage to Domino Kirke was guided by 'divine love'. The two began dating in 2014 and got married in 2017. They have a child together, four-year-old James Badgley, and Badgley is also stepdad to Kirke's son from a previous relationship, teen Cassius Riley.
After more than seven years of marriage, the couple is clearly still going strong. In fact, it was Kirke who 'encouraged' Badgley, whose breakout role was on the hit teen show Gossip Girl , to take on You after he initially wanted to turn it down. He was averse to appearing in sex scenes for the sake of 'fidelity in [his] relationship', he told Variety in 2023, but given his wife's support, decided he 'wasn't going to listen to anyone more than her'.
So, what else do we know about Kirke? She's a musician Domino Kirke has new music for 2025. Photo: @domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
Kirke has been making music since she was nine years old and performing since she was 17 – She calls music her 'first love' and 'first home'. She studied piano and vocal performance at New York's LaGuardia High School of Music & Performing Arts, and her first record deal was with Mark Ronson.
After she got pregnant with her first child in 2008, Kirke took a step back from her music career, believing she would be able to 'just get back to it' after the birth. However, she says it was harder than she imagined. Her debut record, Beyond Waves , came out in 2017, and Badgley supported her on X saying that it was 'gorgeous' and would 'stand the test of time'. Kirke's band Domino has toured with Lily Allen , and her shows are often described as 'meditative'. On February 12, she released 'It's Not There', the first single from her forthcoming EP The Most Familiar Star , due out in April. She's also a doula Domino Kirke is a doula and passionate about birth education. Photo: @domino_kirke_badgley/Instagram
