Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have remained one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples for more than a decade.
Although the couple first met in 2010 on the set of Green Lantern, in which Lively played the titular character’s love interest, they were both seeing other people. At the time, Lively was dating her Gossip Girl costar Penn Badgley, while Reynolds was still married to actress Scarlett Johansson. In October of that year, Lively split from Badgley after three years of dating, and later in December, Reynolds and Johannsson announced that they were divorcing after two years of marriage.
However, things between Reynolds and Lively didn’t take a romantic turn until a year later, after a disastrous double date.
On SiriusXM’s Entertainment Weekly Radio Deadpool special in 2016, Reynolds explained to Jess Cagle: “We were buddies for a long time, which I think is the best way to have a relationship, to start as friends.”
The Free Guy actor continued: “About a year after Green Lantern had come and gone and we were both single we went on a double date – she was on a date with another guy and I was on a date with another girl – and it was like the most awkward date for the respective parties because we were just like fireworks coming across.”
It wasn’t until 2011 that the pair sparked dating rumours, with a source at the time confirming to People: “They are very much a couple. They’re really happy together.” Reynolds and Lively were also spotted shortly after in Vancouver, Canada, where they were spending the holiday with his family.
On 9 September of the following year, the couple secretly married at the Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. There was reportedly a children’s choir performance as well as a romantic paper lantern sendoff over the nearby river. The pair selected a sour cream wedding cake with peach-apricot preserves to serve their guests for the evening, and their friend Florence Welch reportedly performed at the ceremony.
Two years after they tied the knot, they made their red carpet debut as a married couple at the 2014 Met Gala, which honoured the work of Charles James. The couple looked like they had walked off the set of an Old Hollywood movie in looks created by Gucci.
A few months after their red carpet debut, Lively announced that they were expecting their first child on her website, Preserve. In January 2015, they revealed that they had welcomed a baby girl they named James, but it wasn’t until a year later that her real birthdate, 16 December 2014, was revealed. In a silly birthday tribute, Reynold tweeted: “Happy birthday to my baby girl! Sad I lost my virginity. But thankful I have a daughter.”
In 2016, Lively revealed that their growing family was about to get bigger when she debuted her growing baby bump while on a press tour promoting her drama, The Shallows, including at the Cannes Film Festival in May when she donned a blue gown fit for a fairytale. The couple welcomed their second daughter, named Inez, in September.
When Reynolds was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in December of that year, the couple brought their two young daughters along with them for the ceremony, marking their first public appearance as a family. Throughout the ceremony, Reynolds gushed about Lively, proclaiming that she was “everything to [him]”.
He added: “You are the best thing, the best thing that has ever happened to me — second only to this star…You make everything better, absolutely everything in my life better. You’ve made me the father of my dreams when I thought I only had fun uncle potential.”
At the Pokemon Detective Pikachu premiere in 2019, the couple announced that their third child was on the way, with Lively proudly showing off her baby bump. In October 2019, Reynolds tweeted that they had welcomed another baby girl. Taylor Swift - a close friend of the couple - later revealed that their third daughter’s name was Betty after she wrote a song of the same name on her Folklore album. Swift used the names of the pair’s other daughters throughout the album’s lyrics.
The pair went on to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary on 31 July 2021 at the Boston sushi spot O Ya where they had their first date together. “If it weren’t for this place. We wouldn’t be together. No joke,” Lively wrote in an Instagram Story. “No restaurant means more to us.”
For the Met Gala 2022, the power couple was selected by Vogue to be two of the co-chairs, alongside Oscar-winner Regina King and Broadway superstar Lin Manuel Miranda. The theme that year was “The Gilded Age,” and the pair did not disappoint. Reynolds donned a velvet tux while Lively stunned the crowd in a gorgeous, show-stopping gown designed by Atelier Versace, paying tribute to the Statue of Liberty.
Later that year, Lively debuted another baby bump on the red carpet, announcing that the couple’s fourth child was on the way at the 10th Annual Forbes Power Women’s Summit. While picking up the Icon Award at the People’s Choice Awards, Reynolds revealed: “It’s gonna be a fourth child very soon. If it happens tonight while I’m here I will be looking for a couch to sleep on for a little while ... But Blake and my girls, you are quite literally my heart, my hope, my happiness. I joke that my family exhausts me, but in reality you give me more strength than any man could possibly deserve.”
In February 2023, Lively shared a photo on Instagram posing with Reynolds and his mom Tammy, showing that she no longer sported a baby bump and indicating that she and Reynolds had welcomed their fourth child together.
