Ryan Reynolds Posts Uncharacteristically Romantic Tribute to Blake Lively for Her 36th Birthday

(Image credit: Instagram)

published 26 August 2023

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are one of our favorite couples at Marie Claire—but the two are certainly more known for genially ribbing one another (trolling might be the better word) on social media tributes, a la for birthdays and the like. But for Lively’s 36th birthday yesterday, her husband went full romance: “You hung the damn moon,” he wrote.

Juxtaposed alongside shots of the two together and snaps of Lively solo, Reynolds wrote “The only thing irrevocably mine in the world is the love and appreciation and awe I feel for this person. Witnessing her life is something I couldn’t take for granted if I tried. And believe me, I try. Happy Birthday, @blakelively.” Sorry, I think I’ve got dust in my eye or something…

Celebrities like David Beckham, Chelsea Handler, Martha Stewart, and Gal Gadot illuminated the post’s comments section, with one Katie Couric writing what’s on all of our minds: “Can you teach my husband to post something like this RR?????” she wrote.

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The sweet post is in kind of a stark contrast to the couple’s typically playful tributes to one another. Access remembers, for example, in 2019, when Lively shared a selfie to Instagram with her finger up Reynolds’ nose. “I picked a good one,” she wrote. For Lively’s 34th birthday in 2021, Reynolds joked “My favorite thing that’s ever happened on August 25”—and, instead of calling out his wife, took the moment to praise Mariah Carey. In 2019, he shared 10—how shall we put it?—photos of Lively that maybe she would not have chosen to be shared, and in 2017, he basically cropped her out of the post altogether.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively at a Wrexham AFC soccer game

We might know why he went all the way in this year: Earlier this year, Reynolds literally created a professionally produced music video for friend Rob McElhenney’s birthday, with the intent behind it being a lesson in how to pronounce McElhenney’s last name. (The two co-own the Welsh soccer club Wrexham A.F.C. together.) Reynolds even employed a Broadway songwriting duo behind La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen to work on the masterpiece, and Lively noticed—she responded to Reynolds’ musical theater number and wrote on her Instagram story alongside the clip “Wow. That’s a lot of effort you put into this…” before adding “Can’t wait for August 25th.” Okay, so it wasn’t a professionally produced music video, but it was just perfect.

The pair have been married for over a decade and share four children together. And happy belated, Blake! A year started with love is a year to look forward to. Now let’s see if she chooses romance or trolling for Reynolds’ own birthday in two months’ time…

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.