‘Gossip Girl’ Romance Recap: Who Do the Main Characters End Up With?
Gossip Girl has so many twists and turns over its six seasons that pretty much every character’s romantic endgame is impossible to predict. Everyone backstabs, lies, and faces countless obstacles as they navigate the elite world of the Upper East Side, so plenty of relationships crash and burn.
After all, Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford) cheating on Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) with her best friend, Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), is what kicks off the drama in Season 1. From there, the romances of the Constance Billard and St. Jude’s students, which include their womanizing (and very stylish) friend Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), get endlessly more complicated. Somehow, “Lonely Boy” Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) turns out to be the biggest villain of all by the end.
Regardless, Gossip Girl’s sixth and final season wraps up every couple’s romance with a time jump and two marriages, giving the main characters happy endings. (Though that depends on how you look at it, maybe.) Keep reading to find out who ends up with who in the teen drama.
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Do Serena and Dan end up together?
Serena and Dan start dating early on in Season 1, but they break up and get back together for various reasons — Serena keeping secrets about her past, Dan feeling out of place in Serena’s luxurious world, and so on and so forth. They also remain apart for various reasons, including Serena’s mom starting a relationship with Dan’s dad. (That doesn’t give them pause as much as it should.)
Even though feelings are still there, Dan and Serena remain friends for the most part when they aren’t together. Quite a few respective love interests later — too many to name, though we’ve ranked all of Dan’s girlfriends, including Blair, if you’re curious — Dan and Serena start dating officially again in Season 6. This time, it sticks.
Dan reveals himself as the titular Gossip Girl, but it doesn’t stop him from getting the girl. Serena forgives him. Even though they share a half-sibling and Dan made her life hell via his blog, Dan and Serena get married in the five-year flash-forward.
Do Chuck and Blair end up together?
Like Dan and Serena, Blair and Chuck do some pretty awful things to each other — more so Chuck than Blair — and are on-and-off for all six seasons. They start hooking up as early as Season 1, and by the end of the season, enter a brief romance. Chuck can’t commit then, only saying “I love you” for the first time at the end of Season 2.
But it doesn’t stop Chuck from hurting Blair time and time again, driving her into the arms of Prince Louis (Hugo Becker) in Season 5. Chuck stops Blair and Louis’ wedding, and at long last, the Season 5 finale sees them commit to each other, though they can’t be together until Chuck’s evil father, Bart (Robert John Burke), is out of the picture.
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In the series finale, Chuck lets his dad fall off a skyscraper. He and Blair run from the cops, and Chuck’s uncle suggests they marry so Blair doesn’t have to testify against him. They have an impromptu wedding in Central Park before the cops arrive. Five years later, the coast is clear, and the couple is leading successful lives with a son named Henry.
Do Rufus and Lily end up together?
Long story short: Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) and Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle) aren’t endgame. They have pre-show history, having dated when they were younger before Lily’s mom drove them apart. A son, Scott, came out of it, and Lily gave him up for adoption without telling Rufus she was pregnant.
By the time the show starts, they’ve both married and separated from other people: Lily has Serena and Eric (Connor Paolo) with Dr. William van der Woodsen (William Baldwin). Rufus marries Alison (Susan Misner) and has Dan and Jenny (Taylor Momsen) before Alison abandons her family.
In Season 1, Lily and Rufus reconnect when their kids start dating, though Lily herself is dating Bart Bass, whose proposal she accepts. Despite her feelings for Rufus, Lily marries Bart in Season 1. A season later, Bart fakes his death. Rufus and Lily’s romance begins again when they seek out their son. Lily and Rufus marry in Season 3.
Giovanni Rufino / The CW / Everett Collection
Things get complicated upon Lily’s cancer diagnosis, which brings William back into the picture. It turns out to be a scheme William orchestrated to drive Lily and Rufus apart. Another obstacle comes when Lily commits perjury (long story, again), but Rufus stays with her throughout her ensuing house arrest.
However, lies and tension come between them — as it does in Gossip Girl — and Lily and Rufus become one of the few main pairings to break up. Bart comes back into the picture, and Lily picks him. She divorces Rufus, though they become friendly again by the series’ end. After Bart’s death, Lily is (somehow) back with William, while Rufus has begun dating Lisa Loeb, playing a fictionalized version of herself.
Who does Nate end up with?
After failed relationships with Blair and Serena, Nate has almost a dozen girlfriends and flings throughout the show. For one, he has an affair with an adult married woman (Madchen Amick) in Season 2, who pays him to keep seeing her. He sticks around to get the money because his family needs it. Though none are ever quite as bad as that one, relationships don’t gel with Nate. Five years later, he ends up alone and running The Spectator newspaper.
Who does Jenny end up with?
Jenny also doesn’t have many solid love interests throughout her run on the show. She has a crush on Nate, but it never turns into anything, and she has a one-night stand with Chuck that leads Blair to banish Jenny from Manhattan. Jenny moves to Hudson, New York, to live with her mom in Season 4, and she isn’t seen again until a brief appearance at Dan and Serena’s wedding.
Who does Eric end up with?
The endgame of Serena’s little brother, Eric, depends on whether you count the Gossip Girl sequel series. Jonathan (Matt Doyle) dates Eric at the start of Season 2 through Season 3, when Jonathan initiates their breakup.
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Though Eric doesn’t end up with anyone in the Season 6 flash-forward, the sequel series reveals that he and Jonathan got married at some point. “GG not only outed my husband Eric, she nearly destroyed his family and friends,” Jonathan said. “And then she turned out to be my brother-in-law.” (Dan really should’ve paid for his crimes.)
Who does Vanessa end up with?
Dan’s friend Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) is another Season 4 casualty. Not literally, but she does exit the show then, only returning for a moment in Season 6. She’s shown in Barcelona, reacting to the news that Dan is Gossip Girl. In the show’s early seasons, Vanessa is secretly in love with Dan, but when they date in Season 3, they break up a few episodes later when Dan is caught cheating with Serena.
Who does Georgina end up with?
Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) finds her match made in chaotic heaven with Chuck’s uncle, Jack (Desmond Harrington). In the flash-forward, they’re a couple and attend Dan and Serena’s wedding.
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