Penn Badgley Discusses Childhood Body Dysmorphia and Spiritual Resilience

Penn Badgley, known for his role in “Gossip Girl,” has opened up about his struggles with body dysmorphia during his early acting career. In an interview with The Guardian in April 2025, he revealed his feelings of self-loathing, stating, “I know that I hated my body, and simply wanted a different one.”

Badgley’s challenges intensified following his parents’ divorce, which led to weight gain and subsequent mental health issues. He described this period as one marked by depression and isolation, noting, “There was just a period where, coming out of depression and isolation, I was jumping wilfully into, but also being thrust into, this world where the more conventionally beautiful I seemed, the more successful I might be, the more value I might have.”

Despite these mental hurdles, Badgley attributes his ability to persevere through difficult times to his spirituality. He explained that this aspect of his life provided the necessary strength to navigate disillusionment, saying, “That is what allowed me to persevere through the disillusionment, all the things I’d been grappling with, and then come back to it all, but with hopefully some kind of inner transformation.”

Special Credits: Image Courtesy of Eonline