Blake Lively is an absolute gem on this earth. From soaring to stardom as part of the cult classic Gossip Girl cast to marrying Ryan Reynolds and creating the sweetest, most hilarious family dynamic with him and their soon-to-be four kids, there’s a lot to love about the actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Today, in particular, we’re celebrating Lively as a mom. With three daughters (James, Inez, and Betty) and Baby No. 4 due any day now, there’s rarely a dull moment in the Reynolds household — but both Lively and the Deadpool actor seem to prefer it that way.
In 2016, she joked with Today, saying, “I’m one of five kids. My husband is one of four, so we’re officially breeders. You can go on our website and we will give you some of our children.” Reynolds spoke similarly in 2013, telling Details, “We’d love to have a big family. We both come from big families — my parents did four, Blake’s did five. A lot of people say it’s crazy, but we’ll only know when we’re there, you know? We’ll walk through that fire pretty happily, I think.”
And here they are, happily walking through that fire as we all watch with doe eyes from afar. Whether Lively is talking about how much her family means to her, relaying hilarious stories about her girls with her signature humor, or uplifting other moms who may be self-conscious about their postpartum bodies, we’re absolutely living for every bit of it. Read on for some of the Betty Buzz founder’s best quotes about motherhood to date.
Feeling Confident As a Mother Than Ever Before
“I think having children for me made me feel so much more in my skin,” Lively told Forbes in 2022. “I never felt more myself or at ease in my own body or more confident — 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.”
Sleep Schedule Struggles
Speaking to People of her eldest daughters in 2017, Lively explained, “[Inez] was not sleeping through the night because she was a 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢. And then she finally started sleeping through the night, because she was old enough, then my older daughter, James, decided that she doesn’t sleep through the night anymore.”
Instagram vs. Reality
During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2016, Lively hilariously expressed her befuddlement around the “perfect” mom trope on Instagram: “Her toddler is giving her reflexology massages. What?! My kid is like playing with explosive devices. I don’t know where she found them. She already knows how to drywall because she puts holes in the wall.”
On Parenting Styles
“I think it’s hard to slap labels on any parents because it’s just so tricky,” Lively told People in 2017. “It’s like every moment you’re figuring out what the heck you’re doing. You think, ‘Ooh, should I be more strict, or should I be more I don’t know, emotional?’ Or whatever it is. If anybody knows how to be a parent, I feel like grandparents really know how to be parents. But parents, you just figure it out as you go. So, I wouldn’t put a label on it.”
Signing Up the Oldest for Babysitting Duty
Joking again with Seth Meyers, the actress said, “I feel like at a year-and-a-half, [James is] equipped to be a 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢sitter. Like, we can go out and go on date night.”
On Teaching Their Kids About Racism
After George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, Lively took to Instagram to write, “We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car. We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out. We can’t imagine that kind of fear and anger. We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is.”
She continued, “We’ve been teaching our children differently than the way our parents taught us. We want to educate ourselves about other people’s experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it… Especially our own complicity. We talk about our bias, blindness and our mistakes. We look back and see so many mistakes which have led us to deeply examine who we are and who we want to become.”
Lively promised, “We’re committed to raising our kids so they never grow up feeding this insane pattern and they’ll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously. It’s the least we can do to honor not just George Floyd, Amaud Arbury, Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner, but all the Black men and women who have been 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed when a camera wasn’t rolling.”
Always Inspired By Her Family
“Family is at the root of everything that I do and it’s also at the root of everything that I create,” Lively explained to Forbes in 2022, continuing, “So, whenever I create something, I create something with family in mind, because that’s just how I live.”
She added, “That also goes into the types of films I want to be a part of. I want to be in films, I want to make films, I want to author films that I would be proud for my children to see. Even the gowns I wear — I just want my kids to be proud.”
The Crazy Difference in Sibling Personalities
During an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2017, Lively explained, “What’s crazy is my two-and-a-half-year-old [James], she wakes up at night — she’s the 𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚢, basically. My little one [Inez], she’s just so divine. She came out of the womb a little foodie.”
On Raising Girls in a Male-Dominated World
“Sarah Silverman does a great bit that I’m going to butcher: ‘Stop telling little girls that they can do anything. They already believe they can do anything. It opens the door for questions,’” Lively told Glamour in 2017. “We’re all born feeling perfect until somebody tells us we’re not. So there’s nothing I can teach my daughter [James]. She already has all of it. The only thing I can do is protect what she already feels.”
She continued, “So do I know how to be the best parent for a daughter? No, I have no idea. All I can do is share what I’m thinking ― and learn from others.”
Giving Their Girls a Normal Life
Lively explained to Marie Claire in 2017, “Ryan had a nice, normal upbringing, and we want our kids to have the same normal life that we had. We don’t ever want to rob them of what we had because then we’d feel really selfish.”
She previously told Allure in 2015, “[James] should have her privacy until she chooses not to have her privacy, just as I got to choose and my husband got to choose.”
Creating an Understanding About Unrealistic Beauty Norms
“We have really unrealistic beauty standards and beauty norms,” Lively told Refinery29 in 2017. “What you’re seeing on red carpets and in magazines takes a lot of effort and a lot of people. People don’t understand that it’s all very constructed.”
She continued, “There’s this awareness of what [little girls are] going to be exposed to and what they grow up seeing. For me, it’s important for my daughters to know that it’s not real life. They’re seeing me dressed up in all this hair and makeup, but they also see me without that. I want them to see both sides because there is never just one side.”
On Getting Back the “Pre-Baby” Body
“You don’t need to be Victoria’s Secret-ready right away because you just did the most incredible miracle that life has to offer,” the actress said to Sunrise in 2016. “I mean you gave birth to a human being! So I would really like to see that celebrated.”
