Ryan Reynolds has revealed that he and wife Blake Lively were flattered when Taylor Swift chose to use the names of their three daughters in her song Betty.
In July 2020, Swift disclosed the name of the couple’s youngest daughter, Betty, who was born in October 2019, with her Folklore song Betty, which also included the names of Reynolds and Lively’s other two daughters, James, six, and Inez, four.
The Free Guy actor reflected on the creative choice while speaking to Jess Cagle during a SiriusXM Town Hall event, where he explained that he and Lively were fine with Swift’s song because they trust the singer “implicitly”.
“The names are the names of our kids, but you know, we trust her implicitly and she’s very sensitive to any of that stuff,” he said. “And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids’ names.”
Apart from the names, the lyrics do not relate to the couple’s daughters, as the Folklore track tells the story of a 17-year-old boy named James who is heartbroken because he cheated on Betty and she found out through Inez.
The father-of-three then went on to describe the use of his daughters’ names in the song as “an honour,” adding that he and Lively thought it was “pretty damn amazing”.
“We thought it was pretty, pretty damn amazing. We still do,” Reynolds continued. “You know, I still walk down the street and shake my head thinking: ‘I can’t believe that happened.’”
As for whether the couple’s daughters knew about the tribute ahead of time, the Deadpool star told Cagle that the children had “no idea” and that he and Lively “surprised” them with the track after it was released.
“We surprised them with it. Yeah. They didn’t know,” he revealed, before joking: “They had no idea. We don’t tell them anything. We find they’re most compliant if you offer them no access to outside information.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the 44-year-old spoke about his hopes for his and Lively’s children, explaining that he wants them to “grow up to be self-aware human beings who affect some positive change somehow, some way in the world”.
Swift confirmed the theory she had used Reynolds and Lively’s children as inspiration for the track during a radio interview in August 2020, when she revealed: “I named all the characters in this story after my friends’ kids... and I hope you like it!”
