From his roles in top flicks like The Proposal and Green Lantern to his very public relationship with wife Blake Lively, people love any peek they can get into Ryan Reynold’s life (even his notorious feud-that-is-all-love with Deadpool & Wolverine costar Hugh Jackman). While we’ve seen plenty of interviews (and Instagram posts) with the Red Notice actor, little is known about his and Blakely’s four children. What we do know is Blake and Reynolds undoubtedly love being parents.
“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Reynolds told Amanda Hirsh on her Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast. “Embrace the chaos. We have four kids. Nothing’s going to be tidy ever again. It will, though, when they all leave the house.”
In the interview, Reynolds also shared how the couple gets through the mayhem of everyday life: “My wife said to me, ‘They’re all under our roof right now. The whole family’s under our roof right now. We have them all.’ And that is a fleeting thing. Not an infinite resource. Embrace the chaos of it all.”
Here’s everything to know about Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s four kids: James, Inez, Betty, and Olin.
James Reynolds
The couple was married in 2012 in a small ceremony just outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Just shy of their second anniversary, the couple welcomed their first child into the world. James Reynolds, who is now nine years old, was born on December 16, 2014.
Their firstborn and first daughter was named after Reynolds’s late father. Though Reynolds has detailed the tough relationship he had with his father in an interview with The MR PORTER Post, he said, “It felt right. My father died soon after my daughter was born, but he got to see her, which makes me happy.”
While James sounds like an unusual name for a female, given Livley’s first name is Blake, it doesn’t seem that abnormal. Plus, given the many unlikely names celebrities have been known to call their kids, Reynolds agrees James is pretty ordinary in comparison.
“In the spectrum of weird celebrity 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢 names, I don’t really feel like we’re breaking new ground here. I didn’t call her Summer Squash Meadowlark,” he said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Inez Reynolds
Two years after James was born, Reynolds and Lively welcomed their second daughter, Inez, into the mix.
Just like with James, there was a little confusion about the name of 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢 No. 2. “I had a new 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢, Inez, with a ‘z’ even though everyone says it’s with an ‘s.’ I don’t know why, please tell Wikipedia,” Lively said during an interview with People shortly after Inez was born.
While the couple didn’t seem to share a ton about parenthood after their first child was born, they’ve spilled plenty of details about Inez’s spunky personality.
“Our pediatrician, when she met Inez, she said, ‘Oh, this one’s shady,’ ” Reynolds shared in an interview on Live With Kelly and Ryan. “Even the other day, when we were traveling back home, we were at the airport, and out of our whole family she’s the only one that got the secondary security pat down at two years old. She just takes it like a hard-earned felon.”
Betty Reynolds
Betty, Reynolds and Lively’s third daughter, was born on October 4, 2019. As with their other children’s names, Betty’s warranted quite a bit of buzz. Whether for its similarity to Lively’s nonalcoholic beverage brand Betty Buzz or its mention in beloved singer Taylor Swift’s song “Betty,” people are very curious about its origin.
Swift was actually the one who officially announced the little one’s name, alongside those of Betty’s sisters, in the song from the Grammy-winning album Folklore.
“I mean, the names are the names of our kids, but we trust her implicitly, and she’s very sensitive to any of that stuff,” Reynolds said during a SiriusXM Town Hall. “And obviously, the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids’ names.”
Although the name was made public by the singer, it’s actually a family name from Lively’s side and holds a deep importance to the Gossip Girl actress.
“My dad’s name was Ernest Brown Jr., but he was known as Ernie Lively,” she wrote in a press release announcing her sparkling mixers. “He gave up his last name when he married my mom and any success he, or I, have experienced has been in a name that isn’t his. So when I was working hard to build this company, I wanted any success to be in a name that was meaningful to him. Betty was his mom and his sister’s name.”
“My dad’s name was Ernest Brown Jr., but he was known as Ernie Lively,” she wrote in a press release announcing her sparkling mixers. “He gave up his last name when he married my mom and any success he, or I, have experienced has been in a name that isn’t his. So when I was working hard to build this company, I wanted any success to be in a name that was meaningful to him. Betty was his mom and his sister’s name.”
Olin Reynolds
While Reynolds and Lively kept quiet about extending their family after their third daughter was born, the duo welcomed a son on February 12, 2023.
While the pair kept their fourth child’s name to themselves, Lively was quick to share several 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢 bump photos via Instagram in an effort to keep the paparazzi from stalking them everywhere they went.
“Here are photos of me pregnant in real life so the 11 guys waiting outside my home for a 🦄 sighting will leave me alone. You freak me and my kids out,” Lively said. “Thanks to everyone else for all the love and respect and for continuing to unfollow accounts and publications who share photos of children. You have all the power against them. And thank you to the media who have a ‘No Kids Policy.’ You all make all the difference 🙏♥️. Much love! Xxb.”