Every Important Moment in Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's Love Story

Updated on 10/2/2023 at 2:50 PM

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively seem to have one of the most idyllic relationships in Hollywood. They're silly, loving, gorgeous — really, what's not to love about the couple? Not only do they both have cheekbones that can cut glass and hilariously dry senses of humor, but the two also have a long and romantic history together.

Reynolds and Lively began dating in 2011 and the story of how the friends-turned-lovers fell for each other is actually pretty sweet. "We were buddies then. I remember it was funny because for about a year after 'Green Lantern' had come and gone and all that stuff, we were both single," Reynolds revealed in a 2016 interview on Entertainment Weekly's Sirius XM show. "We went on a double date. She was on a date with another guy, and I was on a date with another girl. That was the most awkward date [from their perspective] probably because we were just like fireworks coming across."

In Reynolds and Lively's case, the best relationships do start off as friendships. Just a year after dating, the couple got married in a low-key wedding ceremony in South Carolina. And after love and marriage came the pair's four beautiful daughters: James, Inez, Betty, and a newborn, whose name has yet to be revealed.

Reynolds and Lively have had a whirlwind 10-plus year romance that some fans still have questions about. How did they meet? What's their secret to making their marriage last? Ahead, keep reading to find out everything that's happened in Reynolds and Lively's relationship (that we know about).

2010

July: Lively and Reynolds were announced as the leads for "Green Lantern" and made their first public appearance together at Comic-Con in San Diego that Summer. At that point, Reynolds was married to Scarlett Johansson, while Lively was still dating her on-again, off-again boyfriend and "Gossip Girl" costar, Penn Badgley.
September: Unlike their characters on "Gossip Girl," Lively and Badgley didn't end up together; the former couple split in mid-September.
October: Lively presented Reynolds with the most anticipated movie trophy at Spike TV's Scream Awards, where they engaged in some witty banter on stage.
December: Rumors of trouble in paradise plagued Reynolds and Johansson's two-year marriage for months before it was announced that he filed for divorce just before Christmas.

2011

April: Lively and Reynolds joked back and forth with each other while attending the WonderCon press conference in San Francisco, which came hot on the heels of Reynolds's quotes to Details magazine about his divorce. "I'm not out of it yet. At all. But I sense that as I do come through it, there's optimism," he said. "How can there not be? I don't think I want to get married again, but you always reevaluate these things."
June: Lively was seen gallivanting all over Europe with Leonardo DiCaprio, igniting plenty of dating rumors. A few weeks later, she and Reynolds hung out together backstage at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards and were photographed looking like the best of friends at the "Green Lantern" premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
July: Reynolds's divorce was finalized on July 1, making it three years since he and Johansson got married.
October: While living in Boston to film "R.I.P.D.," a very special visitor was spotted leaving Reynolds's apartment during his birthday weekend in the wee hours of the morning — Lively! Dating rumors immediately began to swirl, prompting People to report that the two "are very much a couple" and that "they're really happy together."
November: Lively was seen sneaking out of Reynolds's apartment in Boston yet again, this time with their adorable dogs. Throughout October and November, the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" actress made quite a few visits to Reynolds on the set of "R.I.P.D." on the weekends when she wasn't filming "Gossip Girl."
December: Reynolds took Lively to his hometown of Vancouver, BC, Canada, over the holidays to meet his family, where they were seen holding hands at the Granville Island Public Market. So cute!

2012

January: The new couple escaped the cold of the Northeast by heading south to New Orleans, where Reynolds had bought a country home during his first marriage. The couple were seen taking an afternoon stroll around the city and sharing a romantic dinner.
May: Lively was clearly a hit with Reynolds's family, because the pair made their way back up to Canada to visit the actor's brother and the rest of his family.
July: Lively took Reynolds to her family's home in New York for the Fourth of July, where they made out in their bathing suits and played around in a dunk tank.
September: Leave it to these two to have one of the chicest surprise weddings in Hollywood history. After a year of dating, Lively and Reynolds tied the knot at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, SC (you might recognize it from a few scenes in "The Notebook!"), where they had plenty of family and friends in attendance (including Lively's "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" costars Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, and America Ferrera). They had a gorgeous, tiered white cake and wedding bands from Lorraine Schwartz, and Lively wore a "cloudlike" gown designed by Marchesa.
October: In the October 2012 issue of Allure magazine, Lively couldn't help but gush over her happiness with her new husband. "Right now, I'm so peaceful," she said. "I've never been happier in my life."
December: Once Lively wrapped up work on the final season of "Gossip Girl," the newlyweds jetted off to France for a romantic getaway.

2013

June: The couple attended the star-studded Chime For Change: The Sound of Change Live benefit concert in London together, where they were affectionate with one another while watching Lively's BFF Florence Welch perform.
September: Lively, ever the fashionista, commented on how her other half influences her taste in clothes. "I was recently asked how my style has changed since I got married, as if I was living under some sort of dictatorship," she told Lucky magazine. "I'm very lucky to be with someone who has better taste than me. We influence each other in different ways."
November: Although Lively and Reynolds didn't hit too many public events after getting hitched, the pair got all dressed up at a benefit for Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease foundation in NYC that fall.
December: In one adorably relatable moment during an interview with The Cut, Livelt admitted that she repins pictures of Reynolds whenever she sees them on Pinterest. Aw!

2014

May: Lively and Reynolds made their Met Gala debut at the fashionable high-society event in 2014, where the former wore a curve-hugging beaded gown and the latter donned a dapper black tux. The next week they flew to Cannes for the premiere of Reynolds's movie "Captives," and both looked like the epitome of Hollywood glamour.
September: "We've never gone a week without seeing each other," Lively revealed to Marie Claire. "He's my best, best friend." She also hinted at how much she wanted a baby, saying, "If I could spit out a litter of kids, I would."
October: By the following month, Lively had gotten her wish! The couple revealed they were expecting their first child together via Lively's website, Preserve, and showed off a beautiful photo of her cradling her baby bump. At the end of October, she strutted down the red carpet with Reynolds at NYC's Angel Ball in a yellow gown that showed off her growing stomach.

2015

January: Although Lively gave birth to a little girl, James, in December, news of her arrival didn't hit the internet until a month later. A source reported that James came "earlier than expected" but that "mom and baby were both healthy and doing well."
February: The new parents hit the red carpet for the first time since welcoming their little bundle of joy. The fan event for Reynolds's movie "Deadpool" was held in NYC and offered the couple plenty of opportunities to make us more jealous than ever of their super cute relationship.
December: Lively's Christmas gift for Reynolds was certainly interesting: a felt Deadpool figurine wearing assless chaps while riding a unicorn and holding a chimichanga. They're clearly meant for each other, huh?

2016

February: Reynolds sat down for an interview on Entertainment Weekly's SiriusXM show and happily divulged how he and Lively first got together: "We were buddies. I remember it was funny because for about a year after 'Green Lantern' had come and gone and all that stuff, 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. That was the most awkward date [from their perspective] probably because we were just like fireworks coming across." Is your heart melting yet?!
March: Dressed to kill and arm in arm, Lively and Reynolds made quite a splash at the White House State Dinner.
April: The happy parents announced that James was getting a little sister in the Spring after photos of Lively's baby bump emerged while she was on the set of her shark flick, "The Shallows."
June: Lively joked around with Jimmy Fallon about what it's like to have a sex symbol for a husband. "It's kind of torture these days because I'm on a plane and everywhere I look, every screen is my husband in a sex montage throughout the holidays with another woman," she laughed. "Everybody wants to watch "Deadpool" on the plane. Everyone!"
July: Marie Claire's July issue not only had plenty of gorgeous photos of Lively, but also a few tidbits about why she knew she was meant to be with Reynolds: "I knew he would always be my best friend for my whole life. That was the biggest thing to me. I'd never known anything like the friendship that I had with him. I could like him as much as I loved him."
December: At the unveiling of Reynolds's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the pair also showed their two little girls for the first time in public.

2017

January: Reynolds and Lively attended the Golden Globe Awards together and posed on the red carpet in matching outfits; Lively wearing a long black and gold Atelier Versace halter dress and Reynolds sporting a classic black suit. Later that month, Reynolds told Variety how his loving marriage helped him navigate the "Deadpool" fandom. "By the time we were in post-[production], we'd been to Comic-Con, and people went crazy for it," he said of the film in his cover story. "The expectations were eating me alive. Blake helped me through that. I'm lucky to have her around just to keep me sane."
May: The couple returned to the Met Gala in stunning coordinated outfits that included a gold Atelier Versace gown with a blue feather train for Lively and a simple blue tux for Reynolds.

2018

March: Reports of marriage trouble began to swirl, but ever-clever Reynolds shut them down with one simple tweet. On March 31, in response to a report from International Business Times India about the couple struggling to spend "quality time" together, the actor wrote, "I wish. I could use a little "'me time.'" Oof!
May: In an interview with Mr Porter, Reynolds opened up about how Lively helped him mend his relationship with his late father, whom he described as being a "tough guy," before his 2015 death. "She has a gift for foresight," Reynolds said. He repeated a similar sentiment of his wife in an Instagram post from Humans of New York later that month writing, "She meets anger with empathy. She meets hate with empathy . . . I had a very fractured relationship with my father. Before he died, she made me remember things I didn't want to remember. She made me remember the good times."

2019

May: Lively debuted her baby bump at the "Pokémon Pikachu Detective" premiere in New York City, and revealed for the first time that she was pregnant with the couple's third child, Betty.
October: Us Weekly reported that Reynolds and Lively told the outlet they secretly welcomed their third daughter over the summer. By that time, Betty was already two months old. Two weeks later, Reynolds shared the first photo of the couple's daughter on Twitter in a tweet that read, "I love B.C. I want my daughters to experience the same natural playground I grew up in."

2020

April: Lively poked fun at her husband's growing hair on her Instagram Stories at the start of the pandemic. "I dare you to forget this every time you see him for the rest of eternity," she wrote, to which Reynolds replied, "Clearly your birth control doesn't work, so . . ." These two together are hilarious!
July: The couple continued their lockdown shenanigans when Lively joked that she conceived baby No. 4 after watching a clip from Reynolds's 2010 movie "Buried." "I think this just got me pregnant," Lively commented on Reynolds's Instagram post, while he responded to by writing, "@blakelively I will be out of the office starting July 22nd throughout the middle or forever and ever. If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact someone. Anyone. Otherwise I will respond to your message as soon as possible upon my unlikely return. Thank you."
August: Taylor Swift sparks rumors that Lively and Reynolds named their third daughter Betty after she included their other daughters, James and Inez, in her song "Betty" that released. A month later, Swift seemingly confirmed the rumors in a radio interview saying, "I named all the characters in this story after my friends' kids . . . and I hope you like it!"

2021

June: Following the death of Lively's father, Ernie, the actor posted a photo of her late dad and Reynolds on Instagram for Father's Day. "🤎 My guys 🤎," she captioned the post, which Reynolds reshared on his Instagram story writing, "Those paws."
July: The couple celebrated the 10th anniversary of their first date by revisiting their favorite Boston restaurant, O Ya. "10 years later. We still go out on our 'first date.' But in much more comfortable shoes," Lively wrote on her Instagram Story. "If it weren't for this place. We wouldn't be together. No joke. No restaurant means more."
August: Reynolds and Lively walked their first red carpet since the pandemic began for the New York premiere of the former's film "Free Guy." In an Instagram Story, Reynolds credited Lively for how the movie came to be writing, "'Free Guy' wouldn't be the movie it is without @blakelively. She was essential in every part of the making of this film, creatively and emotionally, and the cameo everyone is talking about was entirely her idea."
November: Reynolds gushed about his wife while accepting an award at the Wall Street Journal's Innovator Awards. "She is a genius. She's a renaissance woman. And she pushes me in ways I never imagined I'd be pushed," he said in his speech. Later that month, he told Entertainment Tonight his secret to having a lasting marriage. "Falling in love is great, but do you like each other? That's kinda the question you gotta ask yourself, you know, going into it," he said. "We've always liked each other. We grow together. We learn from each other. So yeah, I'm lucky to have a buddy in that."

2022

February: Lively and Reynolds cozied up at the latter's New York City premiere for "The Adam Project," sharing some PDA on the red carpet. And Lively stole the show with a pastel rainbow gown from from Atelier Versace's spring 2019 couture collection.
September: Lively revealed that she and Reynolds were expecting their fourth child when she debuted her baby bump at Forbes's Power Women's Summit in New York City on Sept. 15.

2023

February: Lively casually confirmed that she and Reynolds were officially a family of six when she shared a photo carousel on Instagram on Super Bowl Sunday. In one of the photos, Lively was notably sans baby bump. "Puppy Bowl Sunday 2023🥘 🍲 🥧 been busy," Lively wrote.