Over the years, Taylor has made multiple references to Blake and Ryan’s three daughters in her music.
Even the most casual of celebrity enthusiasts would probably be aware of Taylor Swift’s close friendship with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
The trio have been incredibly good friends for years, to the extent that Ryan literally loaned Taylor his actual Deadpool costume for Halloween 2016.
He and Blake also gave up their lakeside home in New York for Taylor to shoot her All Too Well short film last year, and Blake recently directed the music video for Taylor’s song “I Bet You Think About Me.”
In return, Taylor often honors Blake and Ryan’s children in her music, including sampling their then-2-year-old daughter James on her 2017 song “Gorgeous.”
According to People, Taylor played the unreleased song to her friends when they were visiting her one day, and after the personal performance, James became so obsessed with the word “gorgeous” that Taylor recorded her saying the word to introduce the track.
And when Blake and Ryan went to watch Taylor on her Reputation tour, they couldn’t hide their excitement as their toddler’s voice played out in a stadium of 60,000 people.
The proud parents were filmed enthusiastically jumping up and down as “Gorgeous” started at the show, and Blake later admitted on Good Morning America: “We were very embarrassing. That was the true, unfiltered version of our terrible stage parent pride.”
However, she went on to add that James is completely unaware of her claim to fame, and that she didn’t let Taylor credit her daughter on the song because she wants her children to have regular lives.
“Our kids have very normal lives, as much as that’s possible,” Blake explained. “So she didn’t even get a title on the album. I should be collecting royalties!”
In 2020, Taylor paid tribute to Blake and Ryan’s kids for a second time as she name-checked James and her two younger sisters — Inez and Betty — in her song “Betty,” which features on the Folklore album.
The song tells the story of a high school romance gone wrong, and each of the named characters is an obvious reference to her close friends’ children, which Ryan previously said was “pretty damn amazing.”
“The names are the names of our kids, but we trust her implicitly. She’s very sensitive to any of that stuff. And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids’ names,” he told SiriusXM at the time.
“But I mean, what an honor. We thought it was pretty damn amazing. We still do. You know, I still walk down the street and shake my head thinking, I can’t believe that happened,” Ryan continued.
He went on to reveal that he and Blake “surprised” their daughters with the shoutout by not telling them that Taylor had used their names before they listened to the song for the first time.
“They didn’t know,” Ryan said. “They had no idea.”
And Ryan has opened up about his children’s close relationship with auntie Taylor in a new interview, where he recalled the exact moment that James, Inez, and Betty learned that she was a global superstar.
“I think what’s most exciting for them is that for the longest time they just thought Taylor’s just a, you know, like an aunt, like a friend of mommy and daddy that’s very, very close, almost family,” he said in a new interview with SiriusXM.
“And then they went to a concert one day and were like, ‘Oh, oh, this isn’t a hobby,’” Ryan laughed.
But the girls remain Taylor’s number one cheerleaders, with Ryan saying that the singer’s new album Midnights is “like a religion” in their house.
He then sheepishly admitted: “In fact, I’m not making this up. We are having a Taylor Swift Midnights dance party in, uh, right after this. It’s Sunday. We’re headed straight to the porch where we’re doing a full dance number set to Midnights… swear words included.”
“My favorite thing is when a 3-year-old is just throwing down the f-bomb in a song,” he added of youngest daughter Betty.
But Betty won’t be the youngest of the clan for long, with Blake revealing that she is pregnant back in September.
Shortly after the news broke, Blake shared a selection of photos of her bump to Instagram as she urged the paparazzi to stop waiting outside of her and Ryan’s home as it was scaring their kids.
True to form, one of the photos featured Taylor, who could be seen smiling as she hugged Blake by a swimming pool.
And Ryan recently admitted that he is prepared to accept the title of “the ultimate girl dad” as he shared his hope that his and Blake’s fourth child is another girl.
Speaking on the Today show, the actor explained that he and Blake “never find out” the sex of their baby before the birth.
“I know girls, so I’m kind of hoping that!” Ryan then said, before quickly adding that he’s “ready for whatever happens.”
