All About Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ Four Children + Their Private Family Life

One of the hottest and most hilarious Hollywood couples, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, have been married for a dozen years and still seem totally in love with each other. 

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While the actors are known around the world as movie and television A-listers, the pair are also dedicated and loving parents to four children. 

Lively and Reynolds both have always said they wanted to have a lot of children because they both come from large families. Lively has four older siblings, and Reynolds has three.

It's clear they also both adore being parents. 

"It's really kind of made me a better person, I think," Reynolds said on "The Ellen Show" in 2018. "It's a dream; they're the best. They're like my little buddies. I love it."

Meanwhile, Lively told Forbes in 2022 that motherhood has made her feel more comfortable in her skin.

"I never felt more myself or at ease in my own body or more confident," she said. "Not to say that there aren't a bevy of insecurities coming at me a million times a day, but I just feel incredibly settled."

The happy couple are known for playfully poking fun at each other on social media. And Lively certainly does not seem shy about sharing some of her own anecdotes about motherhood with her social media followers, even posting about pumping breast milk at Disneyland. 

But the couple are extremely private when it comes to their children and their family life. That's in spite of the fact that their bestie Taylor Swift has name-dropped their kids in a few of her songs. The Hollywood royalty go to great lengths to shield their kids from the paparazzi and keep them out of the spotlight. 

Lively told Marie Claire after her first child was born in 2016 that she and Reynolds chose to be famous but that their kids didn't.

"I'd rather not have to deal with [the paparazzi] at all, but we knew the lifestyle we were getting into," she said. "And while it's hard ... it's another thing when it's our child. [James] didn't have the opportunity to make a decision about what she wants."

Not a whole lot has been made public about each of the young members of the Reynolds-Lively clan, but here's everything we know:

James Reynolds (9)

James Reynolds entered the world on Dec. 16, 2014, making Reynolds and Lively parents for the first time. She's now 9 years old. 

James was named after the "Deadpool" (2016) star's father. Unfortunately, Reynolds' dad died only a few months after the little girl was born. 

"It felt right," Reynolds told The Mr Porter Post about her name. "[My father] got to see her, which makes me happy."

The "Free Guy" (2021) lead clearly loves his wife, saying after they got married that he would take a bullet for Lively. But he said on the "Late Show with David Letterman" in 2015 that his priorities changed when James was born.

"The second I looked in that baby's eyes, I knew in that exact moment that if we were ever under attack, I would use my wife as a human shield to protect that baby," he joked.

As the firstborn, James definitely captured the hearts of both her parents right away. But she may have made a special mark on her father. Reynolds told Entertainment Weekly in 2016 that James has him wrapped around her tiny finger.

"I truly worship that kid. It's terrible," he joked. "She says 'dada' and I will walk through a cement wall to get to her."

Even though her parents have tried to keep James out of the spotlight, she actually made a cameo on one of Swift's albums when she was just 3. Don't worry, though — she had her parents' permission.

Swift and Lively have famously been best friends for nearly a decade. The "Gossip Girl" alum's kids even call the musician Aunt Taylor.  

People reports that Swift played the song "Gorgeous" from her Reputation album for her friends before it was released. Apparently, James was in the room and became obsessed with saying the word "gorgeous."

The "Cruel Summer" singer clearly thought it was adorable and recorded James saying the word to introduce the track.

Over the years, James has made only a few public appearances, including once when she attended Reynolds' Walk of Fame ceremony in 2018. 

Inez Reynolds (7)

Reynolds and Lively entered the "2-under-2" club when they welcomed their second daughter into the world just over a year and a half after James. Inez was born Sept. 30, 2016, and is now age 7. 

Even if having two young children can be stressful and may come with a serious lack of sleep, the Hollywood couple were excited to expand their family. 

"There's nothing on earth more grounding than having a baby," Reynolds told E! News in 2016 right before Inez was born. "It's the best thing that could ever happen to someone."

Inez was just an infant when she made her first public appearance, alongside her older sister at her dad's Walk of Fame ceremony in 2018. 

As she got older, Inez developed a "bit of a dark side," Reynolds said on "Live with Kelly and Ryan."

"She's super into villains," he said. "We watched 'Beauty and the Beast,' and her favorite character is Gaston."

Reynolds comes from a family with a lot of men, but he says he loves being a girl dad.

"I do not miss masculine company at all," he told Steven Colbert in 2020. "Really, most men tend to be the architects of someone's demise. So, it's fine. I like just being here with the girls. I like doing the girl stuff."

As his little girls have gotten older, "The Adam Project" (2022) star told Harper's Bazaar he tries to be present with them and be involved in their daily lives.

"For me, the best time of my day is walking them to school and walking them back," the actor said. 

Betty Reynolds (4)

The Reynolds-Lively clan went from four to five when Betty Reynolds was born on Oct. 4, 2019. 

But apparently not the entire family was ecstatic about another addition. 

Lively told Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show" that Inez took a minute to warm up to the newborn. 

"It's a bit of a tough adjustment in our house, but it's good," she said. "I have two other daughters, so my oldest is very much into the baby, but my middle child, not so much."

She went on to say that Inez only "pretended" to play with the new baby but has since warmed up to her.

"I said to [Inez], 'You know, you're gonna get to teach her everything she knows! You get to teach her about cities and the sky and flowers and Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse, anything you want,'" Lively explained. "And she goes [to her new sister], 'Oh, I didn't love you, but now I do.'"

The reason for Betty's name has never been explicitly shared. But Lively started a non-alcoholic sparkling-mixer brand in 2023 named Betty Buzz, and she shared the reason behind THAT name. 

In the announcement of the new mixers, Lively penned that her paternal grandmother and her aunt were both named Betty — which may also be the reason behind her third daughter's name. 

The public knows Betty's name now, but Lively and Reynolds never actually announced it. The secret was actually, and inadvertently, revealed by family friend Swift. 

Swift has a song named "Betty" on her Folklore album, which also mentions the names of Reynolds and Lively's other children, James and Inez. The incredibly clever Swifties pieced together the puzzle that Betty must be the name of their third, which Reynolds later confirmed to Sirius XM. 

"The names are the names of our kids, but you know, we trust her implicitly," Reynolds said about Swift using their names. "She's very sensitive to any of that stuff. And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids' names."

Fourth Baby (Around 1)

The couple's fourth child was likely born sometime in early 2023. 

Lively revealed her fourth pregnancy on the red carpet for the Forbes Power Women's Summit in fall 2022. A few months later, Lively posted on Instagram on the day of the 2023 Super Bowl, noticeably without a baby bump, quietly alluding to their birth. 

Not much else is known about the latest Reynolds-Lively child, not even the gender or name. 

Reynolds said on the "Today Show" in November 2022 that the couple had decided to wait to find out the gender, but he hoped the fourth baby was another girl.

"I know girls, so I'm kind of hoping that," he said.

And he told Entertainment Tonight that his oldest three girls were excited about a new addition: "They're in. They love it. They're ready."

As for himself and Lively, the "Green Lantern" (2011) star added: "I'm very excited. We'd have to be. You know, you'd have to be a moron to do this four times if you didn't like it. It's gonna be nuts, but we're very excited."

The newborn made their first public appearance in March 2023 when the Lively-Reynolds household traveled to Wales to support the Wrexham football (soccer) team, which is partially owned by Reynolds, at a match. 

And the youngest Reynolds earned a small mention on her father's Instagram in June 2023, when he introduced his new series "Bedtime Stories with Ryan."

"You know the best part about stories? You remember them. They stay with you. And I want to tell you a bedtime story," he wrote. "The idea for a show made to help everyone fall asleep was born the same day as my fourth child." 

Regardless of their kids being born to two of the most famous people in Hollywood, Lively and Reynolds say they want to raise their children as normally as possible — and are maybe even hoping they DON'T enter the entertainment industry. 

"When they're older, they can do whatever the hell they want," Reynolds told People. "I'm excited for that. Our job is to foster as much interest in as many different things as possible at this point."

READ MORE: An Inside Look At Taylor Swift & Emma Stone's Decades-Long Friendship