Penn Badgley's wife has hit back at rumours she was the one responsible for the actor's refusal to do any more sex scenes.

The 39-year-old actor revealed his decision to ditch intimate scenes in an episode of his Podcrushed podcast, while referencing his marriage to Domino Kirke, with whom he shares six-year-old son James and one-year-old twin boys.

Explaining why there was limited on-screen sex in the later seasons of his hit TV show You, he said he'd asked showrunner Sera Gamble "can I just do no more intimacy scenes".

He added: "This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. I don't think I have ever mentioned it publicly. One of the main things was, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I'm always playing the romantic lead?

"Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It's got to the point where I don't want to do that. "So I said to Sera, 'my desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero.'"

Many fans were less than impressed with the lack of raunchy scenes in the later episodes of You, with some taking aim at Penn's wife Domino and blaming her for his bold move.

However, Domino hit back in an Instagram post on Monday, as she insisted in a piece to camera: "Meaning, he didn't want to have sex. He didn't want to. Yes, he didn't want to do any of that, which was really major in his industry because that's the thing they like you to do the most.

"The characters that my husband has played over the years, people have come to expect that he will continue to play that guy."

She also said that Penn's mental health was another motivating factor for the decision.

Domino continued: "In the entertainment world, they call actors "puppets" behind their backs, and it's even more disturbing when they start as child actors.

"So finally, after years of trying, Penn decided to take a stand and let the world see him. And guess what, he hasn't lost fans and he's still getting hired!"

Domino concluded by saying she was "super happy" and "very proud" of Penn for making the "major decision", and pointed out the effect it had on the "hygiene" of their marriage.

She then sighed: "So yeah, I want to say to those of you who still DM me about my husband deciding to do this for himself and his mental health, like get over it."