It’s almost time for Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds to welcome their fourth child together. The Hollywood power couple is still headlining movies and busy owning a collection of companies—not to mention purchasing a British soccer team and snapping up a number of new awards along the way. However, the duo is most famous for putting their family first. They do so both in some sweetly endearing ways, and with some humorous jabs, too.
When it comes to the labor process, it’s safe to say that Lively—and Reynolds as her support system—are old pros. It’s also a sure bet that Reynolds has learned what to do (or not do) in the delivery room.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are expecting their fourth child together
Lively, 35, and Reynolds, 46, met on the set of Green Lantern and later married in 2012. Together they now have three daughters: James (born in 2014), Inez (born in 2016), and Betty (born in 2019).
Though the Hollywood icons share their filming ventures and their businesses, they keep their family life private. The two do not post images of their children on social media. And most images of their children are from when James and Inez were in their toddler years. (Even then, their faces are blocked if it was posted by Lively or Reynolds.) The three girls might have a Taylor Swift song that names them, but otherwise they are shielded from celebrity life.
In September 2022, Lively posted a carousel of her at various stages of her most recent pregnancy, mainly to ward off the paparazzi who had surrounded their family home. “Here are photos of me pregnant in real life so the 11 guys waiting outside my home for a [unicorn] sighting will leave me alone,” she wrote on instagram. “You freak me out and my kids out.”
In line with maintaining their family’s privacy, Lively and Reynolds have not shared when their fourth addition is due. However, at the 2022 People’s Choice Awards on December 6, Reynolds said Baby No. 4 was coming “very soon,” He joked that he would need to find someone’s couch to stay on if the baby arrived while he was accepting The People’s Icon award at the event.
Lively didn’t find all of Reynolds’ trolling during labor with their oldest child funny
In an interview with Seth Meyers a few years ago, Meyers was asking Reynolds for advice about how to support his own wife, who was due with their first child. Reynolds’ advice was more along the lines of a, “do what I said, not what I did” sort of situation.
At one point in the delivery room when Lively was expecting James, Reynolds thought it would be amusing to play “Let’s Get It On,” by Marvin Gaye. According to Reynolds’ retelling, it wasn’t his smartest choice from him. “It was like steak knives came out of her eyes from her,” Reynolds recalled. “She was like, ‘Are you f****** s****** me right now?’”
That said, Lively handled the entire process with grace, her husband vouchered. “She was a mercenary,” Reynolds said, with admiration. “I think I just caught her right in the middle of a contraction. She was pretty much making jokes the entire time.”
Reynolds’ advice to Meyers, and other first-time dads, is to “do the dirty work,” like changing diapers and waking up in the middle of the night. “A human being will exit your wife,” he said. “So she’s done enough. Just change the diapers.”
While they troll each other, the couple also frequently roots one another on
Fans of Lively and Reynolds likely aren’t surprised that the couple used humor to support each other during the earliest stages of the parenting process. In fact, the duo is infamous for trolling each other, especially on social media. Both have used each other’s birthdays to roast their spouse. On other occasions, they’ve shared less-than-flattering images of each other for a little #nofilter humor.
And while they can poke fun at each other with the best of them, they are also each other’s biggest supporters. “If anything defines this man, it’s the way he lives his life de él to honor and value his home de él, whether that be me and our babies, or all of his people de él in this room,” Lively said during a recent awards ceremony recognizing Reynolds’ career.
Reynolds shared a similar sentiment as he accepted the Icon award at the People’s Choice Awards. “Blake and my girls, quite literally you’re my heart, you’re my hope, you’re my happiness,” he said. “I joke that my family exhausts me, but in reality you give me more strength than any man could possibly deserve.”