Blake Lively feared Gossip Girl bosses wouldn't approve of Penn Badgley romance

Blake Lively was initially scared Gossip Girl bosses would disapprove of her dating co-star Penn Badgley, before realizing it was exactly what they wanted to happen.

The teen drama series celebrates its tenth anniversary next month (Sept17), and Gossip Girl continues to draw in new audiences thanks to being available on streaming services like Netflix.

During the show’s five-year run Blake dated Penn, mirroring what was happening on the show with their characters Serena and Dan, but both stars were scared about how the show's producers would react to their off-screen romance.

“Stepping back from it, I can see it (that producers would be thrilled),” she mused to Vanity Fair. “But I remember there was one point where we were just afraid of how our personal lives overlapping our work life could be perceived by our bosses.

“(But then) we were like, ‘Oh no, that’s exactly what they want.’ They wanted us all to date. They wanted us all to wear the same clothes that we’re wearing on the show. They wanted that, because then it fed their whole narrative. People could buy into this world.”

The pair broke up before the season two finale, and managed to keep the split hidden from the crew by not bringing any personal drama on to set with them.

Blake, who is now married to Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, adds that while it may have looked like her life was overlapping with privileged teen Serena, it never actually felt like that to her.

“At the time I was wearing the same clothes and doing fashion shoots, and dating the same person that my character was dating, and because of that, what people were projecting onto me was that I was Serena... We look the same, and we acted the same as far as they could tell, because I wasn’t doing anything but that show,” she explained.

“If (Penn and I) were photographed walking down the street, they didn’t know if it was a paparazzi shot or if it was a shot from the show. At the time, what was heightened was, wow, it all looks similar from the outside, but it’s so different on the inside.”