Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Established a Rule Early in Their Relationship That Still Works Today

Thirteen years and four kids later, we’d say they’ve got it pretty figured out.

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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds
(Image credit: Getty Images)

It’s difficult to make a marriage work in Hollywood, and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are one of the rare couples that seem to have figured it out. Lively recently shared a rule they established early on in their relationship—instituted because she felt she’d been working “nonstop” on Gossip Girl when they first started dating in 2011—and the vow seems to be working, 13 years and four children later.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Reynolds and Lively began dating in 2011 and married in 2012

(Image credit: Getty Images)

“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,” she told friend (and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants co-star) Amber Tamblyn on Tamblyn’s Substack show “Further Ado,” per E! News.

The couple married the next year, in 2012; Lively added that this rule hasn’t always been incredibly easy to adhere to: “That takes working really hard when we’re not,” she said. “Just like financial planning and sustaining that, it takes balance.”

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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

It's really too bad this couple isn't attractive or anything

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Of Gossip Girl—which ran from 2007 to 2012—“I’m used to working hard, and going and going and going and going and not stopping,” Lively said. “Especially, Gossip Girl was six years of my life, and we were sometimes shooting three episodes at once.”

Lively and Reynolds share daughters James, Inez, Betty, and a fourth child, whose birth was revealed in February 2023. The rule, established before kids were in the picture, is proving even more important now that there are four more members of their family. “There’s nothing on earth more grounding than having a baby,” Reynolds told E! News. “It’s the best thing that could ever happen to someone.” 

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Reynolds and Lively share four children together

(Image credit: Getty Images)

For the Super Bowl earlier this month, Reynolds watched the kids while Lively joined close friend Taylor Swift at the championship game in Las Vegas. Another rule to the success of their marriage seems to be trolling one another on social media—the two take playful jabs consistently and constantly—and Reynolds used the occasion to poke fun at his wife again at the NFL title game. He wrote on Instagram of Lively—who was shown multiple times at the game, standing next to Swift—“Has anyone seen my wife?” (Reynolds joined Lively and Swift for a Kansas City Chiefs game earlier in the season, when the Chiefs squared off against the New York Jets in October. Everyone’s a Chiefs fan now, by the way, because of one Travis Kelce, who—breaking news—Swift is dating.)

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Reynolds and Lively joined Swift and others at the Kansas City Chiefs versus New York Jets matchup in October

(Image credit: Getty Images)
Rachel Burchfield
Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.