Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are a golden couple in Tinseltown. From Hollywood hits to entrepreneurial endeavours, they’re among the industry’s most successful multimillionaire pairings. But to James, Inez and Betty, they’re just mum and dad.
Even Lively acknowledges that her children don’t realise quite how fortunate they are: “When my kids are giving me attitude, I try to tell them that I’m real-life royalty and that they’re lucky that I’m raising them,” she told Vogue. “They don’t buy it.”
Blake Lively’s kids are apparently unimpressed that their mum is Hollywood royalty, the star once quipped. Photo: @blakeeerrr/Instagram
The couple subtly announced the latest addition to their family earlier this year when they posted photos of Lively on Super Bowl day suddenly sans 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢 bump, per People. In keeping with their approach to date, they seem to be keeping the 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢’s name and gender a secret for as long as possible.
So, who are Lively and Reynolds’ three older children, and what have they said about how they’re raising them?
Meet Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s kids: James, Inez and Betty
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively with their three kids. Photo: @thehollywoodpipeline/Instagram
In addition to their new 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢, the former Sexiest Man Alive, 47, and Met Gala queen, 36, currently have three girls: James, eight, Inez, seven, and Betty, four.
James – recognisable for her mass of blonde curls – is named after Reynolds’ father, who died soon after she was born. She also has her dad “wrapped around her finger”. “I truly worship that kid. It’s terrible,” he confessed to Entertainment Weekly in 2016. “She says ‘dada’ and I will walk through a cement wall to get to her.”
Meanwhile, Inez is the sassy one who’s more into Disney villains than princesses. Even her paediatrician noticed that she had a big personality, calling her “shady”, Reynolds told People. She might also be the one to eventually take after her fashionista mother though, as Lively shared an Instagram Story in 2021 of an all-pink outfit her daughter had chosen for her.
Blake Lively’s daughter Inez apparently channelled #Barbiecore before it was cool, picking out this all-pink outfit for her famous mum. Photo: @blakelively/Instagram
Not much is known about Betty, except that when she was born, James was much more into her than Inez was, Lively told People. Betty may have been named after Lively’s grandmother and aunt, just like the actress’ non-alcoholic drinks brand Betty Buzz.
Reynolds loves being a ‘girl dad’
Ryan Reynolds has spoken about how much he enjoys parenting three girls. Photo: @_celeb_babies_kids/Instagram
The wisecracking Welcome to Wrexham star has repeatedly quipped about being a “girl dad” on talk shows, saying that coming from a family of all boys means the whole experience has been fascinating for him. During a discussion at the Cannes Film Festival last year, he joked: “They’re wild. I think they have rabies sometimes.”
But, speaking to Steven Colbert during the pandemic, he admitted just how much he loves spending time with his wife and three daughters: “I do not miss masculine company at all. Really, most men tend to be the architects of someone’s demise. So, it’s fine. I like just being here with the girls. I like doing the girl stuff.”
Taylor Swift is known as ‘Auntie Taylor’
Blake Lively and Taylor Swift are pals, and the pop star is a fan of the actress’ kids too. Photo: Instagram
By now it’s no secret that Taylor Swift is a fan of the couple’s children. Yes, that’s right: she’s a fan of them rather than the other way around. At least for now, anyway.
During an interview on The Jess Cagle Show, Reynolds said that for the first few years of their lives, his daughters had no idea Swift was a famous pop star. He said they just thought she was “like an aunt, like a friend of mummy and daddy’s that’s very, very close, almost family”.
“And then they went to a concert one day and were like, ‘Ohhhhh, this [music] isn’t a hobby,’” he added. Meanwhile, Swift has stopped her shows before to say hi to James and “Nezzy”, and even wrote a song about the three girls, inadvertently giving away Betty’s name before it was made public.
Self-awareness is more important than happiness
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Photo: @blakelively/Instagram
Reynolds and Lively have often talked about their priorities when it comes to raising their children. In particular, they’ve made a joint decision to focus on cultivating self-awareness rather than happiness among their children.
“Part of my job as a parent is to model behaviours and model what it’s like to be sad, and model what it’s like to be anxious or angry – that there’s space for all these things,” the Spirited actor told Entertainment Tonight in 2021.
“That’s the thing we sort of hang our hat on the most is self-awareness with our kids. Not be happy, not be anything, just be self-aware and welcome everything in,” he continued.
Anti nepo babies? Reynolds doesn’t want his kids to be child actors
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. Photo: @vancityreynolds/Instagram
Despite – or perhaps because of – the couple’s own fame, Reynolds has said he doesn’t want his children to get involved with acting, especially while they’re still young. “Putting a kid in a business like this, it’s generally not about the kid,” he told People magazine. “It’s usually about the parents.”
He also told the Today show that he worries about what James wants to be when she grows up, joking that he likes to “whisper in her ear normal everyday jobs”. “‘You’re going to be a flight attendant … a barista … Just normal, wonderful jobs that you can have a nice, normal life [with],’” he recalled.
