It is unanimous that Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are the most unproblematic and loving couple in Hollywood. However, their love story is worthy of a beautiful, romantic film! The two met on the sets of the disastrous film ‘Green Lantern’ in 2010. But the two were going through turbulent times in their lives. Ryan divorced Scarlett Johannsen in 2010, while Blake split with her ‘Gossip Girl’ co-star, Penn Badley. A double date in 2011 changed the fate of the couple.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively married in an intimate wedding ceremony in September 2012. The details of the wedding that were released later were enviable. Lively wore a beautiful Marchesa wedding dress. The wedding food plates, like hearts, were filled with some scrumptious desserts, which included s’mores bars, mini tarts, and little cakes. The relationship has bloomed into a beautiful tale of love. However, the couple’s wedding was highly criticized for its choice of destination in South Carolina.
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Ryan Reynolds And Blake Lively Shared Vows On A Plantation With Slavery History
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds wedding venue was a very controversial moment in their lives. The couple shared their vows at Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina. The place had a troubled history, tainted with slavery. In 1681, John Boone and his wife, Elizabeth, founded the plantation. The documents read that there were 85 slaves employed to produce handmade bricks. The slaves lived in small, compact cabins which are still intact.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively chose the plantation as their wedding venue merely for the aesthetics of the place. They found the place when they were searching for wedding venues on Pinterest. This tone-deaf move by the couple invited heavy criticism, but this incident resurfaced when Ryan tweeted in support of the ‘Black Panther’ film in 2018 for its all-Black cast. People called him out for his hypocrisy. In a profile interview with Fast Company, Ryan Reynolds talked about the regret that engulfed the couple over their decision.
The ‘Deadpool’ actor said, “It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for. It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.”
Reynolds continued, “Years ago we got married again at home—but shame works in weird ways. A giant f****g mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t f**k up again. But repatterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.”
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The Couple Started Many Anti-Racism Initiatives
After the wedding decision debacle, in June 2020, Blake Lively posted on their Instagram about the initiatives and donations that the couple had started. At the time, they were concerned about raising their three kids—James, Inez, and Betty. They expect their kids to grow up and not inflict any pain on “another being,” perpetuating the pattern.
In the Instagram post, Blake uploaded pictorial texts, which read, “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 own 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. They’ve led us to huge avenues of education.”
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, during the Black Lives Matter movement, pledged to donate money, be an ally to the movement, and remain vigilant when they are voting for candidates during elections. In 2020, the couple donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Reynolds also started ‘The Group Effort Initiative, a program to give minority children an opportunity to be a part of a film crew.
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