How Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Went From Friends to #CoupleGoals
The couple that laughs together stays together!
Before becoming one of Hollywood's most beloved couples, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds started off as "buddies"—which isn't all that surprising, considering they're also one of the most down-to-earth twosomes in Tinseltown.
“We were such good friends for so long and we both got to know each other as friends. It didn’t click for a good year and a half," Lively said in a 2016 episode of The Jess Cagle Interview. “That’s what I appreciate about our relationship is that he’s my friend first and foremost.”
Reynolds has paid heartwarming tributes to Lively throughout the promo cycle for Spirited, his Christmas musical, including at the 2022 People's Choice Awards. Look at how he and his Gossip Girl bride went from costars in a superhero movie to real-life power couple who enjoy trolling each other online.
Related: Ryan Reynolds Net Worth In 2022
How did Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds meet?
Lester Cohen/WireImage
The pair met in 2010 on the set of their film Green Lantern, which came out the following year. Lively played Carol Ferris, Reynolds' love interest, in the movie, while Reynolds took on the title role.
Related: 5 Things You Didn't Know About Ryan Reynolds
When did Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively start dating?
The now-46-year-old Reynolds and 35-year-old Lively were first linked in 2011. That October, a source told PEOPLE, “They are very much a couple."
Reynolds admitted that fireworks erupted between him and Lively while they were out on a double date ... but not with each other!
“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,” he recalled on SiriusXM’s Entertainment Weekly Radio in 2016. "We were buddies for a long time, which I think is the best way to have a relationship, to start as friends."
Lively admittedly wanted to marry her former costar because she knew he would always be her "best friend" for her "whole life."
"That was the biggest thing to me," she explained to Marie Claire in 2016. "I'd never known anything like the friendship that I had with him. I could like him as much as I loved him."
Related: Ryan Reynolds' Sweetest Christmas Memory
When did Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds get married?
Lively, wearing a silk tulle gown by Marchesa, secretly married Reynolds in 2012 at the Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina. "When they decided to marry, they wanted to celebrate in privacy—and in style," Martha Stewart Weddings noted of the couple's nuptials. Florence Welch performed at the reception, during which Lively's dress got burnt by a sparkler. "Right on the front! And it was just so heartbreaking to me," Lively later revealed in an interview with Vogue. "And later, my dress was hanging up and Ryan said, ‘Isn’t that beautiful?’ I said, ‘What?’ And he pointed to the burn. My heart just stopped, because it was such a sensitive little subject. And he said, ‘You’ll always remember that moment with Florence singing and the sparklers. You have that forever, right there, preserved.’ Now that’s my favorite part of the dress."
In 2020, the Deadpool actor called his and Lively's decision to host their wedding at the plantation, which features nine slave cabins, a "giant mistake."
“It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for,” Reynolds said in an interview with Fast Company. “It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy. Years ago we got married again at home—but shame works in weird ways. A giant f-cking mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t f-ck up again. But re-patterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.”
Related: Ryan Reynolds Reveals the Best Advice He'd Give His Younger Self
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
How many kids do Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have?
The Hollywood stars are parents to three daughters. Lively and Reynolds welcomed their first child, James, in 2014, followed by Inez in 2016 and Betty in 2019. They are currently expecting their fourth child.
Despite being in the spotlight, the actors are keen on giving their children a normal life—which reportedly includes raising them in New York's Westchester County, about two hours north of New York City. "Ryan had a nice, normal upbringing, and we want our kids to have the same normal life that we had," Lively previously explained to Marie Claire. "We don't ever want to rob them of what we had because we'd feel really selfish."
Related: Blake Lively On How Her Marriage To Ryan Reynolds Influenced Her Work
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Who was Ryan Reynolds married to before Blake Lively?
The actor was previously married to Scarlett Johansson. The Black Widow star and Reynolds wed in September 2008, but announced in December 2010 that they were splitting.
“After long and careful consideration on both our parts, we’ve decided to end our marriage,” they said in a joint statement (via PEOPLE). “We entered our relationship with love and it’s with love and kindness we leave it. While privacy isn’t expected, it’s certainly appreciated.”
SGranitz/WireImage
Who has Ryan Reynolds been engaged to?
Prior to Johansson, Reynolds was engaged to Grammy-winning singer Alanis Morissette. According to PEOPLE, the former couple met in 2002 at Drew Barrymore’s birthday party and dated for two years before they got engaged in 2004. However, the Canadian-born stars never made it down the aisle, calling off their engagement in 2007. In a joint statement (via PEOPLE), their reps said, "They remain close friends and continue to have the utmost love and admiration for each other."
Morissette's song "Torch" is believed to be about Reynolds.
Who else has Ryan Reynolds dated?
Charlize Theron
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
Reynolds reportedly enjoyed a summer fling with actress Charlize Theron in 2011. Explaining why they split, a source told Us Weekly, "He only wanted something casual, but she's in a rush to settle down, have kids and start a family since she's getting older."
Agnes Fischer
D Dipasupil/FilmMagic
Following his divorce from Johansson, it was reported in March 2011 that The Proposal actor was dating German model Agnes Fischer.
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachel Luna/Getty Images
Per PEOPLE, Reynolds and She's All That star Rachael Leigh Cook were together throughout the early 2000s.
Kristen Johnston
Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images
The 3rd Rock from the Sun actress briefly dated Reynolds in 1999, according to PEOPLE. Johnston spoke about her ex during a 2020 appearance on Watch What Happens Live. "It was so long ago I forgot, but literally, so nice, great guy, lovely," she said of Reynolds. "Lovely person."
Traylor Howard
Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images
Ryan had an eight-month relationship with his Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place co-star in 1998, per PopSugar.
Melissa Joan Hart
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc.
The Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV movie costars were "smitten" with each other, Melissa Joan Hart admitted on Australia’s Studio 10 in 2017. The actress, who had a boyfriend at the time, received a watch from Reynolds on the last day of shooting the 1996 flick. Hart told E! News' Giuliana Rancic in 2014, "I chased him down, got in front of his car and just kissed him and then made out with him all night," adding, "Then I had to call my boyfriend the next day and explain it." Hart also revealed that Reynolds came to visit her in New York. She said, "But I think he wanted something more but I decided I was going to stick with my boyfriend."
Who has Blake Lively dated?
Leonardo DiCaprio and Blake Lively dated
Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Soon before she got together with Reynolds, Lively was linked to one of the world's most famous actors: Leonardo DiCaprio. The two enjoyed a summer fling while gallivanting around Europe, but by September 2011, it was over and Lively was ready to meet her Mr. Right.
Ryan Gosling and Blake Lively went on a Disneyland date
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Before settling down, Lively reportedly had another brief affair with another famous Hollywood Ryan (that would be Ryan Gosling) in 2010. Although the romance was never officially confirmed, they were caught canoodling at the afterparty for his 2010 romantic drama Blue Valentine and spotted together on a date at Disneyland. In December 2010, a source told E! News, "They've been out a few times and are definitely into each other, but I don't think it's super serious or anything right now... They're casually dating, but I could see it becoming more." Spoiler alert: It didn't become something more, and the two fizzled out after a few months. (Gosling, of course, is now with Eva Mendes.)
Related: All About Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes' Relationship
Penn Badgley and Blake Lively were together on and offscreen on Gossip Girl
James Devaney/WireImage
Before Reynolds came along, Lively's most serious romance was arguably the one she enjoyed with her Gossip Girl co-star, Penn Badgley. The two were together from 2007 to 2010, but kept their relationship tightly under wraps—because, as Lively recalled to Vanity Fair in 2017, "We were just afraid of how our personal lives overlapping our work life could be perceived by our bosses." When they split, Lively and Badgeley (who's now married to Domino Kirke) hid their breakup from their coworkers as well.
“The shocking thing was, I found out on the set of the Season 2 finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before,” GossipGirl writer and co-producer Joshua Safran told Vanity Fair. “They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now. I don’t even know how they did it. They kept it from everybody which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show.”