This Actor Handled a ‘Tough’ Dad Moment Any Parent Can Relate To
By Movieguide® Contributor
YOU star Penn Badgley recently recalled a “tough” moment with his son that required him to manage his own impatience.
“I was being short with him,” the actor said during a live taping of the “Modern Love” podcast. Badgley shares son James, 4, with wife Domino Kirke.
Badgley continued, “It wasn’t helping him because he was already so upset and I stopped and I said…’I’m being impatient with you and you probably don’t like the way that I’m speaking to you, do you?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry.’”
He explained that there are parenting moments that might be difficult, but he never wants to lose his patience with his son.
“Sometimes it can be tough and you can just be over it. And for whatever reason, there’s always going to be the times as a parent, …you lose your patience,” Badgley explained. “For me, it’s just the sheer size of them, being so small, the naivete, the helplessness. I would lose my patience with other people, no doubt, but not [him].”
Shortly after James’ birth, Badgley spoke about fatherhood, calling it a “very, very joyful” experience.
“We had an opportunity to be with him in a way that we wouldn’t have. So that is a strange blessing in it all,” he said, referring to the COVID-19 lockdowns. “To me, even being a father in a pandemic has still been a joy somehow.”
READ MORE: PENN BADGLEY SHARES HOW HAVING A FAMILY HAS CHANGED HIS LIFE
In addition to James, Badgley is also stepdad to Kirke’s son Cassius, 15. The actor has previously spoken about the differences between being a dad and a stepfather.
“I have an interesting situation where I have a biological son and a stepson,” he said in a 2024 interview. “His father is very much in his life, so his father is his father, and I’m something else, so I have two different kinds of parental roles.”
Badgley shared that one of the ways he and Cassius have bonded is over movies, specifically the sci-fi adventure EDGE OF TOMORROW.
“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!’” Badgley laughed, adding, “He loved it.”
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