Blake and Ryan's Fairytale in Hollywood

Whenever Hollywood is brought up, our brains automatically think of celebrities and movies. A place in the world where people go to try and be the next discovered person off the street, to chase their dreams. Depending on your taste, some may also think high crime rate, skid row, and plastic surgery and people wanting to all look the same, tan and young forever. Then, some also may wonder if the high-end celebrities know anything about reality, even a little. They don’t struggle to pay bills, they don’t have to budget for food or vacations, they get to live a good life. There's the big question of, how do you know who’s around for real and who is fake. How do they even get to have regular friendships and relationships, do they even follow loyalty anymore or is it all social status? How do they know when the love is real and when they’re being set up for the specific benefit of someone else? Good news though, that didn’t seem to be the case for Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.

Most of us know Blake Lively (starring in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Gossip Girl, Green Lantern) from her well established reputation nation- wide. Back in 2010, her on again off again relationship with her Gossip Girl co-star came to an end for good. Ryan Reynolds (starred in Waiting, The Proposal, Deadpool, Green Lantern) also announced his wife of 2 years, Scarlett Johansson, were getting divorced. Their divorce was finalized in July 2011, one month after, he and Blake started their romance. They met on the set of Green Lantern back in 2010 and became good friends. At one point, according to People.com, they were on a double date and the chemistry between them was undeniable and sparks flew, a moment of fate and magic working together, if I may say. July 31, 2011, when they had their first date at a sushi eatery in Boston and then appeared together outside of a Boston apartment when Ryan was filming the movie R.I.P.D. Then a few months later, they were seen in Vancouver together, visiting his family during the holidays.

From the second they met, thanks to social media and paparazzi, the whole world noticed the sparks and chemistry between the two. You can just see the love they project onto each other when they look at one another. It’s almost like they’re blocking out the rest of the world and focusing on each other and loving every second of being together, in the life that they are building together. All over social media and magazines whenever they are together, they always just look like they’re truly enjoying life and can’t get enough of each other. Blake shares that she thinks their relationship is so strong because of them starting off as good friends before getting into a relationship. In 2012 they got married at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, thanks to a Pinterest suggestion.

For those who don’t know, because I didn’t either until I did my research, this location was a plantation that was very active in slavery at one point in history, and a lot of the bricks came from slaves that were forced to make them by hand. Some people say you can even see fingerprints in the bricks. When the newlyweds announced this, not knowing the history, the internet blew up. The online scrutiny got bad enough that Ryan made a public statement saying, “they were not aware of the history and that it was a mistake that cannot be undone”, according to People.com. Fun fact, the plantation that they got married at was the house that the character Allie and her family, from The Notebook, stayed there as that was their summer home. According to hookedonhouses.net they talk about how the actual plantation has several slave cabins on the property, that were not shown in the movie for more now obvious reasons, how crazy! As a fellow fan of The Notebook, I would’ve loved to get married in that location, but its history is truly sad and yet it's such a beautiful location. For all we know, the movie could’ve been the reason for the chosen wedding venue. Either way, once they discovered the history, they felt they couldn’t apologize enough, as it also offended a lot of people.

In May 2014 they attended the Met Gala together, after already being married for two years. The picture that was taken of them, found in a People’s Magazine article, they still look like newlyweds. Clearly you can see Ryan staring at Blake with a true, genuine smile and looking like he couldn’t be happier if he tried. Blake has a big, beautiful smile showing all her beautiful teeth and pure bliss. She looks like the happiness is radiating off her. If it wasn’t for their black-tie best wardrobe, you’d think they’re just another happy couple in the world, young and in love and the whole world ahead of them. They look perfect together and apparently, they had big plans as well. They announced together in October of 2014 they were expecting, and December 2014 they welcomed their first daughter.

While both their acting careers carry on strong, between the years of 2014 and 2023, they had four beautiful children together. They have three daughters and as of right this moment, they welcomed their newest addition in February 2023, but have not released the gender or a name yet. The couple does not share pictures of their children on social media, as Blake wants to keep them out of the public eye for the most part, but they do sometimes make brief appearances at events with the happy parents. Thankfully, they were able to privately welcome their fourth child and out of the public eye. With Blake not even revealing a name or gender, I feel like it’s safe to assume that she just wants to enjoy that one on one time with her new baby and her family, just for a little longer. I can’t say I blame her; I can only imagine the pressure the public eye can put on your shoulders when you’re famous and everyone is always looking at you.

We can’t forget that Blake and Ryan are extremely supportive of each other and their careers. In 2016 when Ryan had his Hollywood walk of fame ceremony, he had the support of his wife and children right there with him. He thanked his wife immensely for being there and just making his life all around better. There are so many clips on YouTube of Ryan being on talk shows, like The Jimmy Kimmel Show and interviews with Jimmy Fallen and is always talking about how much he loves being a dad and he loves his wife and having a family and how happy he is. Blake has also thanked Ryan in some speeches over the years as well. Talk about a power couple, they are both leading very successful careers and should be extremely proud of themselves. Getting your own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is a HUGE accomplishment. Blake started off by acting in a lot of lower budget movies and was kind of stuck there for a minute even though she is amazingly talented. Shortly after having their first child, she starred in The Shallows and that movie blew up the box office, and that sent her career soaring. But they still stay humble by thanking each other for the support and the patience, because we can only imagine how painfully stressful it can be to be a part of making a movie or tv show, and just being there for one another.

They are still human though, so of course mistakes can and will be made. On Jimmy Kimmel live, Ryan and his co-star at the time, reminisced about the time they had met to buy part of a Welsh soccer team. He said that his wife did not react well to the news, and they are still working through that one together, as he did not talk to her about a purchase like that before hand. I suppose I can’t really blame her; I would be mad too. I used to get upset at my boyfriend for spending so much on gaming stuff but at least he never bought half of a freaking soccer team. I can only imagine the fights that they have over that incident. That’s just more proof that they work well together, and no matter what they don’t give up on each other, even when one of them irresponsibly purchases half a soccer team.

Date nights and outings are still enjoyed between the two. From celebrating Blake’s birthday together and giving her a sappy, lovely Twitter shoutout, to going out for ice cream. They still have fun and act a little immature; they have a great playfulness about their relationship that is admirable. No one wants to be with someone who makes them feel just as stressed out as the rest of the world. We all know adulting is a scam, and sometimes you just need to show a picture of a little lettuce on your significant others face, as talked about on eonline.com. They don’t hesitate to love troll each other all over the internet either. Ryan Reynolds has a very dark, yet hilariously relatable sense of humor that is shown in so much of his work, and that’s just one more reason as to why she loves him. He’s a funny guy, and every woman loves a man who can make her laugh. Just the never-ending gooey love they spew for each other all over the internet shows how much they truly adore one another and are totally obsessed, but that’s how it should be, right? They take weirdly angled selfies together, they tease each other online and play pranks on each other, and they both love their children unconditionally. Blake even says that he rushes to come home after work just so he can spend that much more time with his family; how sweet is that.

Now that we are all “experts” on Blake and Ryan’s relationship and their family, let’s wrap this up with looking back at my original thought, how do famous people know that they found an actual meaningful relationship instead of being used. After looking at all this information and reading these different articles and looking through adorable pictures, it simply comes down to body language. I know you’re going to say you know that already, but do you really? I am a very observant person and when I look at pictures and social media and so on, I look at the facial expressions. The eyes are also a dead give-away, you can tell they just shine from the happiness deep within, almost like a happy sparkle, or whatever you want to call it. You can see the sincerity and how they are the focus of each other, no matter what else is happening around them. Even if they’re holding the weight of the world on their shoulders or whatever they could be going through personally, you’d never guess that they are anything but happy. You look at how they are always standing close to each other and always touching in some way or another, not wanting to be away from each other, being comfortable with each other. Body language speaks volumes people, pay attention. Words can create any feeling that’s projected onto the reader and there’s endless meanings behind these words. However, body language cannot be faked.

Having the Hollywood lifestyle hasn’t seemed to of faded these two, not even a little. With that much support and dedication they have to each other while working the career paths that they have and raising a family is astonishing, in my opinion. Most of us struggle with our average jobs, relationships, families and the stress of everyday life, just thinking about having the stress they endure to do the job that they do, almost sends me into a panic attack. Kudos to them for beating biased opinions and not letting the public eye control their relationship or letting the stress crumble them. They are still going strong after being together for over a decade now, and here’s to hoping that we can all have an amazing and magical relationship like Ryan and Blake.