Originally appeared on E! Online
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' love story started with a different kind of proposal.
The "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" alum revealed that when she and the "Deadpool" actor first started dating in 2011, they decided on an important vow that would make their relationship work.
"When Ryan and I got together, we made a rule not to work at the same time," she told friend Amber Tamblyn on her Substack show Further Ado Feb. 22. "So that we could always prioritize our personal life."
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And while it's clear the ultimatum has worked out for Lively and Reynolds—who got married in 2012—she noted that the rule has been challenging to stick to.
"That takes working really hard when we're not," she continued. "Just like financial planning and sustaining that; it takes balance."
The policy of not overlapping work was especially important to Lively, because at the time they started dating, she was working "nonstop" on Gossip Girl.
Photos: Blake Lively & Ryan Reynolds: Romance Rewind
"I'm used to working hard and going and going and going and going and not stopping," she added. "Especially, Gossip Girl was six years of my life, and we were sometimes shooting three episodes at once."
But two years after the hit show ended, the pair was able to turn their attention toward growing their family, welcoming daughters James, 9, Inez, 7, Betty, 4, and a fourth child whose birth was revealed in February 2023.
"There's nothing on earth more grounding than having a baby," Reynolds told E! News in 2016. "It's the best thing that could ever happen to someone."
And when it comes to keeping the spark alive after all these years, perhaps Lively and Reynolds live by another rule: The chance to troll each other at every opportunity, whether that's the Super Bowl or sharing extremely candid photos on Instagram.
