You star Penn Badgley explains why he refuses to have any sex scenes now

If you have already churned your way through the first half of You season four, never fear, there is still more fun to be had while you await the second half.

If you haven’t, well this is a relatively spoiler free story so don’t fret.

As in, we're going to talk about it without giving away any plot points, so you can press on, dear reader.

But if you haven't binged it yet: get to it, you’re missing out.

Sex. Did you notice there is far less of it this season? We didn’t, but if you did, there is a distinct reason why.

Penn Badgley, who plays Joe Goldberg in the hit series, revealed why there was less hanky panky on the new episodes during an episode of his own podcast, Podcrushed.

Sitting down with his co-hosts Nava Kavelin and Sophie Ansari, Badgley took fans behind the scenes to explain the sexy - or not so sexy - side to the You universe.

He told his co-hosts how he had asked writer Sera Gamble to reduce the number of steamy scenes and bring the sex factor down from '100 to zero'.

He revealed Gamble 'didn’t even bat an eye' and was 'really glad that I was that honest and had a really positive response'.

Gamble soon came back to Badgley with a script featuring a 'phenomenal reduction' in sex scenes.

And if you go back and watch the first half of season four, yeah, there isn't a lot of sexy times.

There was sex, but it was hinted at. There were no close-up close-up shots. Clothes generally remained on, and it didn't impact the show one iota.

This writer didn't notice the difference between seasons, to be totally frank.

But, upon rewatch, Badgley's 'less sex' request is explicit now it has been pointed out.

Which leads us to one, simple question. Why?

Thankfully, Badgley has an answer for this, too.

"Fidelity in every relationship, and especially my marriage, is really important to me. It just got to a point where I don’t want to do that," he told listeners of Podcrushed.

"Before I took the show, it was a question: Do I have a career if I don’t? Think about every male lead you’ve loved," he said.

"Are they kissing someone? Are they doing a lot more than that?"

Well, luckily for Badgley, it seems his fame has surpassed the need to shed a little skin for the sake of viewership.