How Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Parent With 'Working Class' Youth in Mind

12/18/2024 01:02 PM

Despite being two of Hollywood's biggest stars, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds prefer to keep the lives of their four children out of the spotlight.

"We try to give them as normal a life as possible. I try not to impose upon them the difference in their childhood to my childhood or my wife's childhood," Reynolds shared in a December 2024 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "We both grew up very working class, and I remember when they were very young, I used to say or think, like, 'Oh God, I would never have had a gift like this when I was a kid,' or, 'I never would've had this luxury of getting takeout,' or whatever. Then I realized that that's not really their bag of rocks to carry."

Reynold's quotes about the couple's "working class" upbringing sparked some online discussion, as Blake's parents, Ernie and Elaine Lively, both worked in the entertainment industry throughout her childhood. Blake's four siblings — Robyn, Lori, Eric and Jason — also all grew up to become actors.

Ryan, meanwhile, is the youngest of his parents Tammy and James Chester Reynolds' four sons. During his childhood in Vancouver, Canada, James worked as a food wholesaler and police officer while Tammy worked in retail.

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Ryan told THR that his kids with Blake are "very much in touch with gratitude and understanding the world enough to have a strong sense of empathy," adding, "Those are the things that I would think [would indicate] we're doing an OK job — if our kids can empathize with other people and other kids. But yes, it's different. When I was a kid, you would just suck it up, get out of the house and be back by sundown, which I just can't even imagine now."

Ryan and Blake became parents with the birth of their daughter James in 2014, followed by daughters Inez and Betty in 2016 and 2019, respectively. They welcomed their son, Olin, in 2023.

Scroll down for the couple's quotes about raising their children:

June 2016

"Ryan had a nice, normal upbringing, and we want our kids to have the same normal life that we had," Blake told Marie Claire ahead of welcoming baby No. 2. "We don't ever want to rob them of what we had, because we'd feel really selfish."

December 2019

"She wants to be an actor," Ryan said of eldest daughter James during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. "I explained to her, I was like, 'Look, that's a huge burden on your nervous system, having to process all of that attention and information. Or else, you develop all of these unhealthy coping mechanisms.' She just, like, looked at me like she didn't know what the f— I was talking about."

Despite his concerns, Ryan said he would ultimately be "fine" with James getting into acting down the line. "But being a child actor in movies and stuff? That's, like, a whole other ball of wax," he added.

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May 2020

At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Blake opened up about how she and her husband planned to teach their children about systemic racism "differently than the way our parents taught us" in a lengthy Instagram post. "We talk about our bias, blindness and our own mistakes," she wrote. "We look back and see so many mistakes which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become. They've led us to huge avenues of education."

November 2020

Noting that he loves "being a girl dad," Ryan told Access Hollywood that one of his and Blake's biggest parenthood priorities was being "as present as possible" for their children. "We don't split up like I shoot movies and my wife shoots movies and we go travel all over the place and we just all go together," he shared. "I think that's been the best part of it is that we really don't spend a lot of time apart. I get to spend a lot of time with my girls."

June 2021

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Ryan revealed that his kids inspired him to be an advocate for mental health awareness. "I have three daughters at home and part of my job as a parent is to model behaviors and model what it's like to be sad and model what it's like to be anxious or angry," he explained. "That there's space for all these things."

He added: "The home that I grew up in, that wasn't modeled for me really. And that's not to say that my parents were neglectful, but they come from a different generation."

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March 2022

Reynolds told Extra that he and Blake don't "shy away" from discussing current events with their kids, despite their young age. "Anytime there's anything out there that's, like, a big news story, something that is epic and historic — and God knows we've had a lot of those over the last four or five years — I usually just say, 'Do you have any questions about this?'" he stated. "I don't really feel at that age it's a good idea to just inject my own sort of perspective or narrative on that. I just want to know what they're feeling and thinking, and that tends to work out all right."

May 2024

In a joint interview with Deadpool & Wolverine costar Hugh Jackman for People, Ryan revealed that he credits his anxiety with making his parenting "better." He explained: "Your focus is less on yourself and more on your kids. … Now I love that I have anxiety, I love that I've had anxiety because when I see my kids experiencing some of that, which is probably genetic, I know how to address it in a way that is compassionate, that actually allows them to feel seen. I know that I can't just fix it. And I can communicate all that stuff to them and with them. I'm always grateful for it."

July 2024

Ryan opened up about his and Blake's home life, revealing that their kids "can't even go to sleep unless they're in our bed. He told the "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast: "My wife always says, 'They're all under our roof right now. The whole family's under our roof right now. We have them all. That is a fleeting thing and not an infinite resource.'"

He continued: "So, [my advice to other dads is to] embrace the chaos of it all because it does get to you. And it's OK to be like, 'OK, f—, I am dying here.' Because that's gonna happen every other day."

September 2024

"Parents today are so different. We're so soft," Ryan quipped during an appearance at HubSpot's INBOUND tech conference in Boston, per People. "I don't yell. I grew up with like — it was nuts, it was an improvised militia. … Now it's like, I can go look at all my resources for parenting and remind myself to be perfectly compassionate."

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December 2024

When asked about the future of Deadpool in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ryan revealed that his status as a father could affect when his superhero returns to the big screen. "It swallows my whole life. You can't take your hand off the stick all the way through development, through postproduction into marketing and promo, and then, you kind of [stop]," he said of working on the film franchise on Variety's "Actors on Actors" series.

As a result of Deadpool's busy schedule, Ryan said he doesn't want to become an "absentee" father. "I don't ever want to miss stuff. I, like, kind of die inside when I see their face and they have a competition or they have a sports thing or something and I missed it," he said.