Ryan Reynolds Credited Blake Lively With Mending Relationship With Father Before Death

Actor Ryan Reynolds credited his wife, actress Blake Lively and her “gift for foresight” with helping him reconnect with his father, James Reynolds. Before his father’s death in 2015, Reynolds’ relationship with his father was on such good terms that he and Lively named their first daughter after him. The Deadpool actor only recently revealed James’ cause of death in an interview with Stephen Colbert on Thursday.

In a May 2018 interview with Mr. Porter, Reynolds said he had a “complicated” and “fractured” relationship with James, who was a “former cop, former boxer, full-time landmine.” He said his father was “tough” on him and his three older brothers.

“He was good in many ways as well, but he was tough on us,” Reynolds explained at the time. “This is not meant to be some sob story – everyone carries their own bag of rocks around and I am no different in that regard – but growing up in my house, it was never relaxing or easy and I know that, throughout my life, I’ve dealt with anxiety in different ways.”

Later in the interview, Reynolds credited Lively with helping him fix his relationship with James before his death in 2015. “She has a gift for foresight,” he said of his Green Lantern co-star. They also named their first daughter after James, a move that “felt right.”

“All family relationships come with some complications,” Reynolds told Mr. Porter. “For better or worse, all roads lead to here. At the end of the day, it’s easier to focus on the good stuff than the bad. My father died soon after my daughter was born, but he got to see her, which makes me happy.”

James Reynolds died in 2015 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Reynolds said his father was also diagnosed with pneumonia while explaining how serious COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus is.

“Pneumonia is very serious,” Reynolds explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “It can take out the toughest of us, and it certainly got my dad. So coronavirus is a serious thing. I keep seeing people – particularly young people – talk about it like it’s not really their problem. And, my God, it’s their problem.”

The actor noted there are many “beloved people” who have immunodeficiency who are at-risk during the coronavirus pandemic, not just elderly people.

“There’s elderly people that are beloved, not just loved in show business, but in life, too,” Reynolds said. “We’ve got to do all we can. So yeah, scary times. But we’re going to get through this somehow.”

Reynolds, Lively, their three daughters and Lively’s mother are now living in self-quarantine during the pandemic. His new comedy Free Guy was supposed to hit theaters during the summer, but was postponed to Dec. 11, by which time theaters are hopefully open.

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