Taylor Swift Says She Loves Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ Kids ‘More Than Anything’ During ‘Eras Tour’
The best auntie! Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds brought their eldest children to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour show on Friday, May 12, where they got the sweetest surprise from the songstress.
“There are a few of the characters [in 'Betty'] that I actually, fun fact, named after real people in my life who I love more than anything,” Swift, 33, said during her Philadelphia concert while introducing the song, per social media footage. “And their names are James, Inez and Betty.”
The Gossip Girl alum, 35, and the Canada native, 46, have been longtime friends of the “Anti-Hero” songstress. After they welcomed their eldest three daughters, it was Swift who publicly shared their names in her 2020 hit “Betty.”
“I named all the characters in this story after my friend’s kids, and I hope you like it,” the Pennsylvania native said in a Twitter video that August before diving into the story of the track. “[James] lost the love of his love, basically, and doesn’t understand how to get it back. I think we all have these situations in our lives where we learn to really, really give a heartfelt apology for the first time.”
She added: “This is a song that I wrote from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy. And I’ve always loved that in music you can kind of slip into different identities and you can sing from other people’s perspectives, and that’s what I did in this one.”
While James is the lovelorn teen in the song, Betty is his high school sweetheart and Inez is the school pal who tells Betty that her beau had cheated on her with additional character August.
Lively and Reynolds’ daughters — James, 8, Inez, 6, and Betty, 3 — watched Swift perform the namesake song live at Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field on Friday from the VIP tent, per social media videos. (The Green Lantern costars, who wed in 2012, welcomed baby No. 4 earlier this year though the little one’s name or sex have not been publicly shared.)
The Cats actress later acknowledged the girls’ concert seats and even sweetly mouthed “Hi James” and “Hi Nezzy” during her performance of the 10-minute version of “All Too Well.”
Reynolds, for his part, has previously been candid about the “honor” of Swift using his children’s monikers as musical inspiration and their friendship. (James’ vocals were also briefly featured at the beginning of “Gorgeous” on her Reputation LP.)
“The names are the names of our kids. We trust her implicitly. She’s very sensitive to any of that stuff. And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids’ names. But I mean, what an honor,” the Deadpool star said during a SiriusXM Town Hall special with Jess Cagle in August 2021. “We thought it was pretty damn amazing. We still do. You know, I still walk down the street and shake my head thinking ‘I can’t believe that happened.’”
He added at the time: “They didn’t know [about the namesake characters]. They had no idea. We don’t tell them anything, we find they’re most compliant if you offer them no access to outside information.”
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Swift — who is playing three back-to-back shows in her hometown of Philadelphia — later left the concert venue on Friday alongside the married couple and their daughters.
