Glaring Red Flags In Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds' Relationship We Can't Help But Notice

Hollywood romances may happen frequently, but rarely are they built to last. Few celeb relationships seem to evolve into a longstanding love quite the way movie stars Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' relationship has. Like so many actors, this love story began when they met on a movie set. And while it seemingly started off slowly, the pair went on to become one of Hollywood's most well-known power couples. Yet, the rumor mill has had plenty to say about what may really be going on behind the scenes with this beloved celeb couple.

While most of the world knows this couple for how they joke about each other in interviews, poke fun at one another on social media, and support each others' projects, that doesn't mean that their relationship is truly picture-perfect. From rumors about infidelity and gossip about Reynolds' controlling nature to the couple's age difference and a very poor choice of wedding venue, Reynolds and Lively have their fair share of red flags.

And, while they are clearly a power couple with plenty of Hollywood connections and some seriously impressive PR, that doesn't mean that they're truly the match made in heaven that much of the world views them to be. So what are Reynolds and Lively's biggest relationship red flags? It's time for a deep dive.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively first met in 2010 while starring together in the film, "Green Lantern." At the time, Lively was still playing Serena van der Woodsen on the hit TV series "Gossip Girl" and was dating her costar from the show, Penn Badgley. Reynolds was also in a relationship at the time; he had been married to fellow movie star, Scarlett Johansson, since 2008. Both Lively and Reynolds ended their respective relationships in late 2010. 

Despite Reynolds' assertion that his and Lively's friendship became romantic after they split from their other partners, rumors have swirled since that the pair actually had an affair after meeting on the "Green Lantern" set. In 2010, a waitress who saw the pair at dinner together told the Daily Mail that despite Reynolds being married at the time, "It was just the two of [them], and they were laughing and flirting. It looked like a date. If you didn't know who they were, you would definitely assume they were a couple." Per a fan's screenshot, in August 2024, author Cat Marnell reportedly tweeted, "Fun fact Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds hooked up when RR was still married to ScarJo, and holed up in a NOLA hotel room during 'Green Lantern,' and Us Weekly had discovered this, and their beauty editor would tell us this at events and about how RR & BL's teams' threats squashed their story." The tweet was reportedly promptly deleted.

Whether Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's relationship really began as an affair is ultimately unclear. What is clear, however, is that once this pair got together, they wasted no time, which may give more traction to the theory that the romance started earlier than they let on. It was October 2011 when People broke the news that the two were together. A source called Reynolds and Lively "very much a couple," adding, "They're really happy together." It's worth noting that this isn't the first time Reynolds moved on very quickly from a split with a long-term partner. He reportedly started dating Scarlett Johansson just two months after breaking off his engagement with singer Alanis Morissette in 2007.

In a 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reynolds opened up about falling for Lively. "For about a year 'Green Lantern' had come and gone; we were both single," he explained. According to him, "We went on a double date; she was on a date with another guy, and I was on a date with another girl. That was the most awkward date for the respective parties because there was just fireworks coming across." Of course, they then started dating and decided to move in together after just a week. Reynolds explained to the SmartLess podcast, "A week later I was like, 'We should buy a house together,' and we did." Less than a year after news of their romance broke, the couple tied the knot. 

Regardless of the reason for Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds seemingly speeding through the early stages of their relationship, they clearly have staying power. The couple celebrated their ten-year wedding anniversary in 2022. Yet, while they may be on the same page now, they were likely in very different places when they met. The pair has an 11-year age gap. Reynolds was 33 when the future spouses met on the "Green Lantern" set, and Lively was just 22. While their age gap may not seem like a problem today, to many of us, the difference between being in your early twenties and your early thirties feels like a big one. And, considering the fact that Reynolds was a married man at the time, it's safe to say that the pair had different life experiences.

Lively was 24 when she tied the knot with her then 35-year-old hubby, and they welcomed their first daughter, James, two years later. Two years after that, their daughter, Inez, joined the family, followed by Betty in 2019, and their fourth child, Olin, who was born in 2023.

While Ryan Reynolds usually seems like the perfect supportive hubby to Blake Lively, things are often different behind the scenes than they may look from the fans' perspective. And, rumors about Reynolds' behavior IRL tell a different story. In 2010, a source revealed to The Daily Mail that Reynolds' controlling nature played a role in his split from ex Scarlett Johansson. The source claimed that Reynolds "can be an overbearing control freak. He's more traditional and she's more independent," noting that he "expected [Johansson] to drop everything and come to him."

Over the years, Johansson has had kind words about Reynolds and their time together, but she may have subtly confirmed the rumors of his jealous and bossy tendencies in a 2016 interview with Cosmopolitan. "The logistics of being with another actor are challenging," she explained, adding, "There has to be a real understanding of how you share your time, especially when two people's careers are going at the same rate. Or even if one person is more successful than the other, that also proves challenging. There may be a competitive thing." If this is a reference to her romance with Reynolds, it's interesting to consider whether this issue may have something to do with his involvement in Lively's career. 

One of the biggest controversies that has come out of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's romance is the way in which they chose to celebrate their love. The pair said "I do" in 2012 in South Carolina at Boone Hall Plantation. The plantation is known for still having its original buildings, including slave cabins built between 1790 and 1810, known as Slave Street. In 2020, the couple came under fire for their choice to get married there. That year, in an interview with Fast Company, Reynolds said that this choice was "something we'll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for." He explained, "It's impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy ... A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down, or it can reframe things and move you into action."

The couple also donated $200,000 to the NAACP legal defense fund. They wrote about the donation on Instagram, saying, "We're ashamed that in the past we've allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is." They added, "We want to educate ourselves about other people's experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it ... especially our own complicity."