Penn Badgley says he became financially independent at just 15 years old, earning enough to be the breadwinner for his family — but he was "close to broke" before landing the role of Dan Humphrey on 'Gossip Girl.

Penn Badgley is opening up about the challenges of dating his "Gossip Girl" co-star Blake Lively while working on the hit series. Badgley, who played Dan Humphrey, dated Lively, who played Serena van der Woodsen, from 2007 to 2010, mirroring their characters' onscreen romance.

As the actor told Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast, "I was tired of television by the time 'Gossip Girl' came around… I initially turned the role down and I didn't just kind of turn it down,