Penn Badgley & Domino Kirke’s Kids: Meet James Badgley, Cassius Riley, and Their Twins

Penn Badgley, widely recognized for his roles in Gossip Girl and You, and his wife Domino Kirke, a singer and doula, have created a rich, loving family life since they began dating in 2014.

Married in 2017, their relationship is grounded in shared values—including their Baha’i faith, a mutual love of music, and a deep commitment to family.

Together, they are parents to son James Badgley, born in August 2020, and are expecting twin boys in the summer of 2025. Penn is also a devoted stepfather to Cassius Riley, Kirke’s son from a previous relationship with musician Morgan O’Kane.

Badgley was born on November 1, 1986, in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Richmond, Virginia, and Seattle, Washington, following his parents’ divorce when he was 12. An only child of Lynne Murphy and Duff Badgley, he is of English, Irish, Scottish, and German descent. He attended Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma and pursued acting over college.

Domino Kirke, born December 17, 1983, in Westminster, London, was raised in New York City from the age of two. She comes from a creative and diverse background—her father, Simon Kirke, is the drummer for Bad Company, and her mother, Lorraine Kirke, raised her alongside siblings Jemima Kirke, Lola Kirke, half-sister Mia Kirke, and brother Simon Kirke Jr. She has English, Iraqi Jewish, and Scottish roots and studied at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.

Before meeting Domino, Badgley was in high-profile relationships with Blake Lively (2007–2010) and Zoë Kravitz (2011–2013). He and Kirke wed in a Brooklyn courthouse in February 2017, later celebrating with a larger ceremony among friends and family.

Now based in New York, the couple balances their creative and professional lives—Kirke as co-founder of Carriage House Birth and Badgley as an actor and podcast host—while raising their growing family with intention and warmth, guided by their shared spiritual beliefs.

Cassius Riley

Cassius Riley, born in 2009, is the son of Domino Kirke from her previous relationship with musician Morgan O’Kane. Now 16, Cassius has been a meaningful part of Kirke and Penn Badgley’s lives since the couple began dating.

Following their marriage in 2017, Badgley embraced his role as Cassius’ stepfather while recognizing the active presence of Cassius’ biological father. On the Modern Love podcast in March 2024, Badgley reflected on their relationship, saying, “His father is very much in his life, so his father is his father, and I’m something else. ” He described their bond through shared moments—like quietly watching a movie together when the rest of the family is asleep.

Kirke has also spoken lovingly about her son’s maturity and emotional insight. In a 2019 interview with Us Weekly, she recalled how, at just 10 years old, Cassius would check in on her during phone calls, a gesture that reflected his early sense of care and awareness.

As a teenager, Cassius responded to the news of his twin baby brothers, due in 2025, with easygoing enthusiasm, reportedly saying, “Oh, this will be fun,” according to Kirke in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.

Cassius’ presence has deeply shaped Kirke’s approach to motherhood. She often reflects on their early years as a tight-knit “little team,” a bond forged during her time as a single parent before her relationship with Badgley.

James Badgley

James Badgley, born on August 20, 2020, is the first child of Penn Badgley and Domino Kirke. His birth followed a difficult path, as Kirke had experienced two consecutive miscarriages before conceiving James.

In a now-deleted Instagram post, she shared the emotional toll of those losses, writing, “I stopped trusting my body and started to accept the fact that I was done.” As a doula and co-founder of Carriage House Birth, Kirke drew on her professional experience to navigate the grief but admitted it took immense strength to “detach lovingly” from the past and embrace the hope of her pregnancy with James.

Born during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, James became, as Badgley described, a “pandemic kid” and a “strange blessing.” The global lockdown created a rare opportunity for uninterrupted bonding time as a family. “He’s only been with us. He loves it. He’s very happy, he’s very, very joyful,” Badgley said in an October 2021 interview on The Jess Cagle Show.

By 2023, James was already full of personality, with Badgley telling Access Hollywood that his then-2-year-old was “talking a lot,” and amusingly referred to himself as “you” when expressing his needs—like saying “You’re hungry” instead of “I’m hungry.”

Now four years old, James is preparing to welcome twin siblings in the summer of 2025. In a February 2025 Instagram post announcing the pregnancy, Kirke shared a tender photo of James and Badgley kissing her baby bump, capturing his budding excitement. While still trying to grasp the idea of twins—Kirke noted he says, “I don’t understand”—James’ loving involvement already reflects the tight-knit bond within the growing family.

The Twins

In February 2025, Domino Kirke announced that she and Penn Badgley were expecting twins, calling the news a “plot twist” that left them both “stunned” and “in awe.”

Due in the summer, the babies were revealed in April to be identical boys, making Badgley a proud “boy dad of four,” as he shared during the You Season 5 premiere with Access Hollywood. The twins are monochorionic diamniotic—commonly referred to as “monodi” twins—meaning they share a placenta but have separate amniotic sacs, a detail Kirke highlighted in her announcement with the hashtag #monoditwins.

Badgley has expressed both amazement and humility about the upcoming arrivals. On the Call Her Daddy podcast, he joked, “Who could be?” ready for twins, but said that Kirke’s expertise as a doula has made the experience more manageable.

During a sonogram, he recalled a touching moment, describing how the twins appeared to be “hanging out in a hot tub,” a particularly meaningful image for him as an only child. Reflecting on the responsibility ahead, he told Access Hollywood, “The world needs more good men, so the pressure’s on us to raise them well”—a statement that resonated with fans online, many of whom praised his self-awareness.

Kirke has also turned to music to process the emotional weight of this chapter. Her April 2025 album, The Most Familiar Star, features the song “Mercy,” inspired by her past miscarriages and current pregnancy.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, she shared that her work as a doula has “healed my relationship with my creativity over and over again,” a reflection of how her personal and professional worlds continue to inform one another.