Did Lily Really End Up With William in Gossip Girl?
There are plenty of questionable decisions in Gossip Girl, but Lily van der Woodsen ending up with William might deserve its own investigation.
We're talking about the same William who manipulated her medical treatment, tried to destroy her marriage, secretly got involved with Ivy Dickens and somehow still managed to find his way back into Lily's life.
And then there's Rufus. Six seasons of complicated history, a marriage, a shared son and enough romantic tension to keep us invested, only for him to end up with someone else.
The strangest part? The finale barely explains any of it.
So, did Lily actually end up with William? Was that little moment with Rufus at Dan and Serena's wedding supposed to mean something more? And why did the writers choose this ending when William's history was practically a collection of red flags?
Let's revisit what happened, because the answer is surprisingly clear. The explanation, however, is another story.
First, let's go back to those final five minutes.
In the series finale, New York, I Love You XOXO, which aired on December 17, 2012, Gossip Girl jumps five years into the future.
Dan and Serena are finally getting married. Chuck and Blair have an adorable little boy named Henry. Nate has become a successful media businessman, and Georgina is somehow with Jack Bass.
Everything is presented as one last glimpse of where these characters ended up.
And then we get Lily, Rufus and William.
Lily and Rufus share an affectionate kiss, which, understandably, has confused viewers during rewatches. After everything they've been through, it's easy to see that moment and assume they've found their way back to each other.
Except Lily then joins William, while Rufus is shown with singer Lisa Loeb.
That is the actual romantic arrangement the finale is suggesting.
Lily is with William. Rufus is with Lisa.
But here's an important detail: we never see Lily and William get married again. There's no proposal, no second wedding and no conversation where Lily announces that she's chosen him.
The scene establishes their apparent reunion as a couple, not the exact legal status of their relationship.
And that kiss between Lily and Rufus? It makes more sense as a warm greeting between former spouses who still care about one another.
Of course, that's easier to accept once you know what the producers intended.
Because if we're judging by the previous six seasons, Lily getting back with William is an extremely strange choice.
Remember when William convinced Lily she was still sick?
We need to revisit Season 3, because this is the part of William's history that makes the finale particularly difficult to defend.
When William van der Woodsen returns, he isn't simply an estranged husband hoping for another chance.
He's also Lily's doctor.
Lily had genuinely been ill and had secretly sought treatment from him. That's an important distinction, because people often remember the storyline as William completely inventing her cancer diagnosis.
The truth is slightly different, and arguably more disturbing.
William had treated Lily's original illness. But after developing feelings for her again, he manipulated her medical care to make her believe she still needed him.
He arranged for Dr. Holland Kemble to prescribe unnecessary medication whose side effects mimicked Lily's symptoms. This allowed William to continue presenting himself as the person helping her recover.
He wasn't just lying about their relationship. He was interfering with her health to keep himself important in her life.
And because apparently that wasn't enough, William also tried to ruin Lily's marriage to Rufus.
Holland claimed she'd slept with Rufus, creating exactly the kind of betrayal that could push Lily away from her husband and toward William.
Rufus denied the affair, but Serena initially believed the accusation. She was desperate to have her biological father back and wanted to believe that William genuinely cared about their family.
Meanwhile, Chuck, Jenny, Blair and the others began investigating.
They eventually uncovered the medication scheme and Holland's involvement. Once the truth came out, William's carefully planned reunion fell apart.
Eric wanted answers about whether his mother was actually sick. Rufus was trying to clear his name. Serena, who had been so excited to have her father home, was devastated.
William admitted that after treating Lily, he'd fallen in love with her again and wanted his family back.
His explanation was that he thought they wouldn't accept him unless Lily needed him.
Which raises a fairly obvious question: why didn't he try being a trustworthy father and husband instead?
William fled before the police could catch him. Serena found him, heard his explanation and allowed him to leave, but made it clear she hadn't forgiven him.
That should have been an enormous turning point for William's relationship with the family.
Instead, the series eventually welcomed him back into their lives.
And, somehow, Season 3 wasn't even the end of his manipulation.
Then came Ivy Dickens. And William somehow got worse.
By Season 6, William had become involved with Ivy Dickens, the woman who had previously pretended to be Lily's niece, Charlie Rhodes.
Ivy had already created enormous problems for the family, particularly after CeCe left her a substantial inheritance.
Lily wanted Ivy out of her life. Ivy, meanwhile, wanted revenge.
The situation became even messier when Ivy began dating Rufus, Lily's former husband.
But behind the scenes, Ivy was also secretly involved with William.
The two were working together, and Ivy believed their relationship was genuine. She thought William loved her and that they were partners in their plans involving Lily and the family fortune.
Then Bart Bass died.
And William suddenly had another opportunity to get close to Lily.
In the series finale, he arrives to comfort her following Bart's death. He presents himself as the concerned former husband who understands her and wants to help.
When Ivy confronts them and tries to expose their secret relationship, William acts as though she's making everything up.
He denies their involvement, dismisses her claims about their messages and makes her look increasingly unreliable in front of Lily.
Once Lily is out of the conversation, William finally tells Ivy the truth.
He had been using her to get back together with Lily.
Ivy had believed she was helping the man she loved. William saw her as a way to reach the woman he actually wanted.
When Ivy threatens to tell everyone, he cruelly brushes her off, making it clear he doesn't believe anybody will care about her story.
He gets what he wants, and Ivy is left to deal with the consequences.
Now, Ivy wasn't exactly innocent. She had deceived the family, manipulated Rufus and participated in plenty of schemes herself.
But that doesn't make William's treatment of her any less calculating.
Here's what makes this storyline particularly frustrating: we never get a proper scene showing Lily discovering the full truth about William and Ivy's relationship.
The audience knows he was deceiving both women. Lily is shown rejecting Ivy's allegations.
Whether Lily ever learns the truth during the five-year gap is left unexplained.
And when the show returns to the future, William is simply there beside her.
Apparently, five years can solve a lot of problems when the writers don't show us what happened in between.
So why didn't Lily end up with Rufus?
This is where the story gets more complicated, because Lily and Rufus weren't necessarily the perfect couple fans remember.
They had a romantic history long before the events of the show. Their relationship went back to their younger years, and they even had a son, Scott, whom Lily had given up for adoption.
When they found each other again, their connection felt different from Lily's other relationships.
Rufus knew her before the wealth, the marriages and the carefully maintained Upper East Side image became such a large part of her identity.
He challenged her decisions. He disagreed with her. He wanted honesty, even when Lily would have preferred to avoid an uncomfortable conversation.
For a while, that was exactly what made their relationship interesting.
They eventually married in Season 3, and the show spent a significant amount of time portraying them as a family.
But the cracks became impossible to ignore.
After CeCe's death, Lily's behaviour toward Ivy and the family inheritance created serious tension. Rufus was uncomfortable with how far Lily was willing to go to protect her position and get what she wanted.
Lily, meanwhile, believed Rufus was taking Ivy's side against her.
Their arguments revealed something that had always existed beneath their relationship: they loved each other, but they approached problems very differently.
Then Bart Bass returned from the dead.
Because this is Gossip Girl, and apparently one husband returning from the grave wasn't enough drama for a marriage.
Bart's return exposed another complication. Lily and Bart had never legally divorced before his supposed death, meaning she needed to choose which marriage would remain valid.
Rufus attempted to save their relationship by arranging annulment papers for Bart.
But Lily was furious that Rufus had acted without consulting her, especially when their marriage had already been struggling.
She ultimately chose to annul her marriage to Rufus and remain married to Bart.
It was a painful decision, but it also showed something important about Lily.
Her relationship with Rufus required her to confront parts of herself she didn't necessarily want to change.
And choosing Bart suggested that, despite everything she'd experienced, she still found comfort in a familiar kind of life.
Of course, Bart's story ended with his death.
And instead of returning to Rufus, Lily eventually returned to William.
There was also another betrayal the series had already revealed: William had fathered Lola with Lily's sister, Carol.
So the man Lily reunited with wasn't simply an imperfect ex-husband. He had an extraordinarily complicated history with her entire family.
Which makes the writers' explanation of this ending particularly interesting.
The show's executive producer actually explained Lily's ending.
Following the finale, executive producer Stephanie Savage addressed the decision in a December 18, 2012 interview with TVLine.
And her explanation reveals that the ending wasn't an accident or a deliberately ambiguous suggestion.
The writers really did intend for Lily and William to reunite.
Savage explained that bringing Rufus and Lily back together would complicate Dan and Serena's relationship.
But that wasn't the only reason.
She believed Lily and Rufus had genuinely tried to make their marriage work. Following CeCe's death, however, Lily struggled to “meet Rufus in the middle.”
Bart, on the other hand, had become far too dangerous and unstable.
William represented something between the two men.
According to Savage, William was someone who would accept Lily's habits and choices without questioning them in the way Rufus might.
He was also the father of her children.
Savage described the decision as a “fun, slightly twisted” conclusion to Lily's romantic story.
And suddenly, the ending begins to make sense from a character-writing perspective.
Not necessarily as a healthy relationship. Not even as a particularly satisfying one.
But as a reflection of who Lily had become.
Rufus wanted Lily to change certain things about herself. William was prepared to let her remain exactly as she was.
The writers seemed to believe she would ultimately choose the person who made her life more comfortable, rather than the person who challenged her.
That doesn't excuse William's behaviour.
It does, however, explain why the show deliberately placed him beside Lily in those final moments.
And yes, Rufus really ended up with Lisa Loeb.
This might be the second most confusing detail in the entire flash-forward.
While Lily is with William, Rufus is shown with Lisa Loeb, the real-life singer-songwriter appearing as herself.
If you thought she appeared completely out of nowhere, there's actually a small detail you may have forgotten.
Lisa had already appeared in Season 1, Episode 17, Woman on the Verge, when Rufus's band, Lincoln Hawk, performed at a concert.
So her connection to the show wasn't entirely new.
Savage later explained that the writers didn't want Rufus to finish the series alone. Lisa also represented someone from his own musical world, rather than Lily's wealthy Manhattan circle.
In a way, that part of the ending is rather sweet.
Rufus started the series as a former musician running an art gallery in Brooklyn. He spent years trying to fit into Lily's world, even when doing so created problems for their marriage.
Ending up with someone who shared his musical background was a way of bringing him closer to the person he'd been before all the Upper East Side drama.
But, just like Lily's reunion with William, we don't actually watch Rufus and Lisa's relationship develop.
We're simply shown that they're together.
No extended romantic storyline. No wedding confirmation. Just another relationship established during the five-year jump.
And for a couple like Lily and Rufus, whose history had been so important to the series, that can feel like a remarkably quick goodbye.
Why are fans still arguing about Lily's ending?
What's fascinating is that this debate never really disappeared.
In a February 2026 discussion on Reddit, fans were still questioning why Lily would reunite with William after his medical deception and attempts to sabotage her marriage.
Some admitted they originally misread the finale's kiss between Lily and Rufus as proof that the two had reunited.
Others argued that Lily and Rufus had never truly learned how to make their different lives work together.
And another interpretation kept coming up: perhaps Lily's ending was supposed to show her becoming more like her mother, CeCe.
That's an interesting possibility.
CeCe was deeply concerned with family status, appearances and maintaining a certain lifestyle. Lily often resisted that influence, but over the years, she also began repeating some of the same behaviours.
Choosing William, a man who wouldn't challenge her choices the way Rufus did, could be seen as part of that pattern.
But there's a difference between an ending that makes sense thematically and one that feels earned.
The writers may have understood why Lily would choose William.
The problem is that viewers weren't given enough time to understand how she got there.
We never watch William seriously reckon with the harm he caused. We don't see Lily process the full truth about Ivy. We don't get a meaningful conversation about rebuilding trust.
And the five-year jump skips over almost everything that could have made their reunion believable.
So, did Lily really end up with William?
Yes. That was the ending the creators intended.
The finale shows Lily and William together at Dan and Serena's wedding, and Stephanie Savage explicitly confirmed the romantic direction the writers had chosen.
But it's worth separating the facts from the assumptions.
We know Lily and William reunited. We know Rufus was with Lisa Loeb. We know Lily and Rufus remained affectionate and connected through their children.
What we don't know is whether Lily and William remarried, exactly when they reunited, whether she discovered his deception involving Ivy, or what happened during those missing five years.
And those unanswered questions matter.
Because Lily's ending isn't controversial simply because she didn't choose Rufus.
It's controversial because the writers brought back a man who had manipulated her health, damaged her family and used another woman to get close to her, then presented their reunion without showing the work it would take to repair that history.
Maybe Lily and Rufus genuinely weren't right for each other anymore.
Maybe William really was the kind of partner Lily would choose at that point in her life.
But after six seasons of watching her make difficult, often terrible decisions, it would have been nice to understand this one.
Instead, we got a beautiful wedding, a very brief kiss, two unexpected couples and an ending that still has people reopening the argument more than a decade later.
And perhaps that's the most Lily van der Woodsen thing about the entire situation.
She gets the elegant ending, the polished appearance and the man beside her.
We're just left wondering what happened behind closed doors.
So here's the question: did Lily finally choose the life she wanted, or did she simply choose the man who would never ask her to change?