Before Penn Badgley and Blake Lively were confirmed as a couple, Matthew Settle, who plays Penn Badgley's TV dad on Gossip Girl, helped to keep gossip about their relationship secret.

But now that it's out in the open, he says, "I think it's nice."

Settle offered fatherly insight about Penn Badgley and Blake Lively on his way to The CW upfront party at The Bowery Hotel in New York May 13, which the Gossip Girl cast attended.

Asked if he had advice for his Gossip Girl son, Matthew Settle answered simply, "In real life, Penn rolls with the punches better than anybody ... I don't think he needs any advice."

About keeping the relationship a secret before it was revealed, Penn's TV Dad said he didn't "want to be too intrusive. I made my own assumptions. But I didn't want to talk about it, to get involved."

Now that the Gossip Girl gossip is out, Settle believes fans will react positively (we completely agree).

"I think people are going to love them as a couple," he said.

"They're a very hot couple. They look good together. And I think they're good for each other, so why not?"

Settle's date at the event was his wife, Israeli born actress Naama Nativ, also an actress, who said that she plays "one of Adam [Sandler's] Israeli girlfriends in his new film, You Don't Mess with The Zohan."

But Settle and Nativ have a solid bond. Married for two years, Matthew Settle said that he met Nativ, "in Los Angeles through friends."

Steve Marsi is the Managing Editor of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Google+ or email him here.