Fatherhood often comes with its own unique brand of madness. Sometimes, it might even feel like it’s costing you your sanity. Ryan Reynolds, proud dad of four, recently shared some hilarious insights into parenting. He and his wife, Blake Lively, have three daughters and one son. Their youngest, Olin, arrived in 2023 and is now two years old. Ryan told Seth Meyers that having a boy has made him, well, a little more on edge.
On the October 9th episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, Reynolds, 48, joked about his early parenting days. "If I had three boys from the start, absolutely not," he declared. "I’d get a ‘punching vasectomy.’ There’s no way I’d let that happen." He was clearly having fun with the topic.
Lively, 38, and Reynolds are also parents to James, 10, Inez, 9, and Betty, 6. The actor explained how life changed once Olin joined the family. "Our home used to be a calm place," the Deadpool & Wolverine star mentioned. "Nothing disturbing ever happened." But then Olin arrived with a distinct focus: "violence, breasts, and engines." Ryan confessed he doesn’t know where this energy comes from. He added that raising three girls felt "so easy." His son, on the other hand, seems determined to "break everything."
This experience, Reynolds noted, made him truly understand his own mother. She raised four boys herself. "It feels like I’m in a direct competition with this little guy," he said about Olin. "I’m the youngest of four brothers. Wow, do I feel for my mom now. Truly. My dad? Eh. But my mom, really."
Lively, however, painted a different picture of Olin during her own appearance on Meyers’ show in May. "My little boy is incredibly romantic," she shared. "When I walk in, he tells me, ‘Mommy, my love!’ Oh, it’s just a dream." She admitted, though, "They are chaos. It’s chaos all the time." "He constantly announces that I’m the love of his life," she continued, "which is the best feeling ever." She even joked about her daily routine: "I get dressed every day, like a high school girl. I think, ‘Oh my goodness, I hope he thinks… I hope he says something!’"
Reynolds, meanwhile, thought back to his own childhood. He remembered the wild times and how he and his brothers created their own brand of chaos. "Do you know how many times my brothers pushed me out of a room without using the door?" he asked. "I was basically a moving target for them. You know how police use a battering ram to enter a building? My head was that ram." He wasn’t making it up. "When I was eight, I knew how to patch drywall," he went on. "That alone says a lot. I mean, a hole in the wall? I could fix it in under six minutes before my dad came home. Perfectly. Spackle, sand, paint – done."
Reynolds and Lively first sparked romance rumors while working together on the movie Green Lantern. They started dating in 2011 and tied the knot in 2012. Lively praised her husband warmly at the 36th American Cinematheque Awards in 2022. She highlighted his "heart, his philanthropy, his humor, his integrity, his unmatched work ethic, his self-deprecating lightness." She also admired his "hard-earned depth and his grace."