Blake Lively Reveals The Major Rule She And Ryan Reynolds Made For Themselves After Starting Their Relationship

Blake and Ryan totally in love Free Guy premiere 2021
(Image credit: Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

One of Hollywood’s most beloved real-life relationships is Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ as they've been going strong since they first met on the set of the ill-fated Green Lantern movie in 2011 and reportedly started dating after completing production. As the husband and wife get ready to celebrate 12 years as a married couple this fall, Lively recently let people in on a secret “rule” she and Reynolds established over the years that has helped them keep their priorities in order. 

Blake Lively reunited with one of her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-stars, Amber Tamblyn, not long after all four went viral for supporting America Ferrera at a Barbie event in December, to have some candid conversations about what’s going on in her life. Amidst the chat, Lively said this about her relationship with Reynolds (via E! News): 

When Ryan and I got together, we made a rule not to work at the same time. So that we could always prioritize our personal life. … That takes working really hard when we're not. Just like financial planning and sustaining that; it takes balance.

During the conversation, which can be seen in full on Listening in the Dark with Amber Tamblyn (with a subscription), Lively admitted her and Reynolds’ rule hasn’t been particularly easy to stick to over the years. However, it remains important to their relationship. The actress particularly has had to adjust considering she was so used to “working hard” and “not stopping” after being on Gossip Girl for all six seasons. 

Along with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds both having booming acting careers, each of them has other business ventures, and they are raising four children together. Their eldest daughter is 9-year-old James, with their middle children being 7-year-old Inez and 4-year-old Betty and their youngest (whose name has not been revealed) recently turned 1-year-old a couple of weeks ago on February 12. 

It'd perhaps be easy for the both of them to be off on their own adventures at the same time shooting different movies and TV shows at once, but they’ve made a point to stick together and switch off working. Both actors have upcoming 2024 movies on the way too, with Blake Lively starring in the romantic adaptation It Ends With Us on June 21 and Reynolds returning to the superhero realm with the highly anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine, coming out one month later on July 26. 

While it cannot be easy all the time for the couple to sometimes say no to specific projects in order to keep the rule going, it definitely seems like it has worked for the couple over the years. They continue to share sweet posts of each other on social media, along with trolling each other all the time as well. Now we have to wonder if this rule means they’ll never work on the same project again… We hope not! 

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.