The terrifying medical condition Penn Badgley had as a preterm infant is now being revealed.
The actor, 36, opened up about how his preterm birth still affects him while appearing on the most recent episode of HypochondriActor, the Hazy Mills podcast hosted by Sean Hayes and comedian and doctor Dr. Priyanka Wali.
Badgley acknowledged that he was “two months premature” and said that his wife Domino Kirke’s work as a dula has helped him learn a lot about prenatal and postpartum issues as well as how much they affected him.
He talked about his experiences.
Since my heart and lungs would stop repeatedly throughout the day, I spent the first few weeks of my life in a NICU and was on a heart monitor, he said.
The You actor then explained to Hayes and Wali that since resuscitation had previously been performed “by doctors for the first couple of weeks” of his life, his mother had to learn “how to resuscitate me, like viscerally.”.
My heart and lungs would stop,” he continued, “so [she had to do it] several times a day. And I was viewing a monitor that would repeatedly beep very loudly. “.
The first time my mother had to revive me was on the way home from the hospital after I was released from the NICU,” Badgley recalled. He continued, “[The doctors] basically said, like, ‘This will happen immediately, so you’re going to have to [help him,’ and [it lasted] until about one. “.
“I believe that by the time I was one, things had advanced to the point where, say, my cousins will relate tales involving dot. Where I would be in the back seat, you know, in a car seat connected to the monitor, and it would go off, and anybody could just touch me,” Badgley said. Therefore, a simple human touch could awaken me. “.
Then, Badgley said that he hasn’t “spoken to my mom about the particulars in a while,” but he added that it “would be interesting” because it has affected him emotionally and that he is very sensitive to touch. “.
He continued, “I just noticed that in my life, and I realized later that it’s probably pretty significant. And I’m a little bit smaller than my father, with a kind of bird-boned appearance. “.
The fact that Badgley is “a very spiritual person” and that he attributes this to “the fact that I was more or less flatlining multiple times a day for the first year,” according to him, is another thing he mentioned. “.
The former Gossip Girl actor continued, “Death doesn’t scare me. “I know it sounds strange to say, but dot. I sense a gravity to the earliest experiences I had because of something about that. I have a very solitary, meditative mode, for example. “.
Badgley continued by saying that his life experiences help him connect with his son, who is now 2 years old.
He said, “I started to think throughout the first year [of his life], like, if that was me, I was constantly flatlining.”. “And by the time you’re a year old, knowing my son the way I do — my biological son, since I also have a stepson, who is 13 years old — but you have so much personality and consciousness going on even by the time you’re a couple of months old, but especially by the time you’re a year old. “.
The notion that my son, whom I now know so well, wouldn’t be affected if he flatlined frequently during his first year of life is absurd, Badgley continued.
I now realize it did affect me, he continued, “thinking of my toddler. My perception of how life is and is not has changed as a result. dot. My toddler is very happy, and I imagine that I was as well, but that would leave a mark on him. “.
