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She has a son from a previous relationship.
By Samantha Maffucci — Written on Jul 15, 2020
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you may not have heard of You on Netflix. If you've had the chance to binge-watch all of the episodes, you know just how creepy and charming (but mostly creepy) the lead character, Joe, is.
You probably recognize Penn Badgley from Gossip Girl, where he played Dan Humphrey, a know-it-all outsider with the same affinity for pretty blonde girls as his You character. Badgley has also played lead roles in Easy A, The Mountain, and Do Over.
But did you know he’s also married? Though he previously dated his Gossip Girl co-star Blake Lively for three years, and was linked to Zoë Kravitz, we’re curious about his spouse.
Domino Kirke, 36, is successful in her own right. She's a musician and also a doula. In fact, she was Amy Schumer's doula! Kirke is also currently pregnant with her and Badgley's first child together.
Who is Domino Kirke, Penn Badgley's wife and Amy Schumer's doula?
Her family is quite famous.
If the last name Kirke sounds familiar, it’s probably because her family is well-known. Her father, Simon Kirke, is the drummer for the bands Bad Company, and Free.
She also has two sisters: Lola and Jemima. Lola had a supporting role in Gone Girl, and starred in Mozart in the Jungle. And Jemima is best known for starring in Girls.
She’s a singer.
Though she released her debut album, Beyond Waves, in 2017, she’s been singing from a young age, where she was in choirs, operas, and plays. She then attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School to study piano and classical voice.
When she was 17, she was spotted at a pub by producer Andres Levin, and signed to his label, Fun Machine. She teamed up with musician Jordan Galland and formed the band DOMINO, which recorded an EP with Mark Ronson and toured with Gang of Four, and Lily Allen.
She’s also a doula.
In a 2017 interview, Kirke described her pregnancy as “very traumatic,” and was inspired to become a doula, eventually setting up her own practice called Carriage House Birth.
It was becoming a doula that helped her “revisit” her career as a musician:
“As the collective grew, I was able to let go of kind of raising my doula baby and focus more on music, because I was really missing it at that point. It’s been tough being a musician and trying to get projects out there, because I’m going to be playing shows at 10 at night, when the moms [I work with] are relaxed. I’ve definitely gone from a show, where I’m in full makeup, the whole thing, straight to a birth, and I’ve come home from those births being like, I don’t know if I can do this anymore. I feel like a double agent.”
They dated for three years.
The couple started dating in 2014, initially keeping their relationship hidden. Kirke admits that they weren’t very serious when they first began dating, especially since she wasn’t a fan of dating an actor.
She revealed, “I was sort of getting used to being a single mom, maybe a little too used to it. I had a really good thing with my kid and we were like this little team. Penn and I were dating, but it wasn’t nearly as serious as it is now, of course. I didn’t think marriage was in the cards for us. So I was sort of just chugging along, surviving and getting through the days, and I think the difference now is that I’m really living.”
They’ve been married for over three years now.
They eventually married not once, but twice! Their first wedding was in February 2017, where they tied the knot in a Brooklyn courthouse and then had a party at Maison May restaurant in Brooklyn.
In June 2017, they had a second ceremony in Lake Waccabuc, New York. The wedding featured famous guests, including Mariska Hargitay, Debra Messing, and Zac Posen.
She has a son from a previous relationship.
Kirke has a 10-year-old son, Cassius, from her relationship with Morgan O’Kane, a musician. Badgley is a stepdad to her son.
She has said, “He’s a good stepdad. He doesn’t have to be ‘dad’ so he can have more fun with him. It’s really nice. The stepparent thing is definitely unchartered territory for me cause I didn’t grow up with one, but... he takes care of him really well.”
Kirke is pregnant with her and Badgley's first child.
In February 2020, Kirke announced that she's pregnant with her second child, and her first with Badgley.
On Instagram, she wrote, “On the road again. Pregnancy after loss is a whole other thing. After two miscarriages in a row, we were ready to call it. I stopped trusting my body and started to accept the fact that I was done. As a birth attendant, I’ve seen and heard it all. It takes everything I’ve got to detach lovingly from the losses I’ve been present for and be in my own experience.”
She was Amy Schumer's doula.
The famous comedienne has a new HBO documentary available to watch now called Expecting Amy. It follows Schumer's difficult birth as well as other parts of her life.
Kirke served as Schumer's doula during her pregnancy, and the comedienne wasn't shy about letting everyone know her admiration for Kirke's help.
In an Instagram post from May 2019, Schumer wrote, “I was lucky enough to get to have a doula. Her name @domino_kirke @carriagehousebirth what do doulas do? I don’t totally know But what she did was make me and [husband] Chris [Fischer] feel totally secure and supported throughout my pregnancy and the birth process. I really recommend getting one if you can.
Doctor Brill and all the nurses and pediatricians at Lenox Hill and all the other hospitals i spent time in this year, thank you for everything. I did Pilates with strong women and went for walks. I threw up violently and felt sick mostly every day of my pregnancy. Hyperemesis is real and it’s awful. But f**k, what they say is true. The second you give birth it’s gone.”
Editor's Note: This article was originally posted in January 2019 and was updated with the latest information.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces.