Scandalous Ryan Reynolds Rumors We Can't Ignore

Despite being at the center of his fair share of controversies, Ryan Reynolds somehow remained one of the most-liked celebrities in Hollywood for many years. The "Deadpool" star managed to deviate from the image of a more traditional, closed-off celebrity using his sardonic sense of humor on social media. A great example of Reynolds' off-beat public image would be his tweet from 2015, where he wrote, "My daughter's only 6 months old and already drawing. I'd hang it on the fridge but honestly, it's absolute garbage." Reynolds' hilarious personality similarly shines through in interviews. 

When he sat down for a chat with Hugh Jackman in 2016, he brought up a question from "Brian Bleynolds from Vancouver, British Columbia," who wanted to know if the Australian actor wore heel lifts to appear taller than Reynolds in "The Wolverine." Of course, his dreamy yet somehow deeply unserious relationship with Blake Lively only made him more likable to the public. However, no amount of public adoration could save them from the backlash that came when people learned they got married at the Boone Hall Plantation in 2012. 

Speaking to Fast Company in 2020, Reynolds apologized for his and Lively's wedding and labeled it a "giant f***ing mistake." "It's impossible to reconcile," he stated. "What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy." At the time, the couple's apologies and donations to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund helped them recover from the controversy. However, Reynolds' reputation eventually ended up in shambles because the unsavory rumors about him kept piling up.

Blake Lively started a legal spat with Justin Baldoni, the director of her 2024 film "It Ends With Us," in December 2024. According to Entertainment Weekly, in the "Gossip Girl" alum's filings, she claimed that Baldoni displayed "invasive, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behavior" on the set of their film. A lawyer for Baldoni vehemently denied the lawsuit's claims to EW. Ryan Reynolds got dragged into the legal mess in January 2025, when Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against him and his wife. In his complaint, the director claimed that Reynolds poked fun at him in "Deadpool & Wolverine," a 2024 movie he had co-produced and co-written by creating a character called Nicepool. 

According to the filings, Nicepool was "a vicious caricature of a 'woke' feminist" who is killed by Lively's character, Ladypool. In another scene, Nicepool makes an offensive remark to a woman about how her body looks after giving birth and also mentions an intimacy coordinator. In her lawsuit, Lively claimed that Baldoni made inappropriate comments about her weight and missed meetings with their movie's intimacy coordinators.

Baldoni's legal team made their case by claiming that Nicepool was only added to the Marvel flick days after Lively and Reynolds had a heated chat with Baldoni. Further, they pointed out that the character also had long hair that he wore up in a bun, similar to Baldoni's old hairstyle. According to CNN, Reynolds later requested to be left out of the lawsuit since Baldoni's "Deadpool & Wolverine" claim lacked legal merit and resulted from "hurt feelings."

As the director of the first "Deadpool" movie, Tim Miller undoubtedly played a large part in making it a huge success. As a result, fans were surprised to learn that he wouldn't return for the anti-hero flick's sequel in 2018. During a 2019 KCRW interview, Tim revealed that he decided to exit the franchise because Ryan Reynolds kept vying for creative control. The "Terminator: Dark Fate" director asserted that he felt he was wasting his energy discussing his creative choices with Reynolds because he was far more integral to the franchise, and the star's opinion would always trump his. 

Somewhat surprisingly, Tim isn't the only one of his "Deadpool" collaborators who had issues with him on-set. During a 2022 appearance on "The Adam Carolla Show," Reynolds' former co-star, TJ Miller, who didn't appear in the third installment of the franchise after a sexual assault allegation against him surfaced, labeled him "horrifically mean." He recalled how the film's star delivered a scathing blow to him while they were in character, saying, "He was like, 'You know what's great about you, Weasel? You're not the star, but you do just enough exposition that it's funny, and then we can leave and get back to the real movie." 

Even Matthew Lawrence had less than stellar things to say about their collaboration in the 2000 film "Boltneck." During an appearance on "The Brotherly Love" podcast, Lawrence shared that Reynolds butted heads with the flick's producers and directors because he refused to listen to their criticism of him doing a "bad Jim Carrey impersonation" instead of an authentic acting performance (via YouTube).

Despite being a Hollywood power couple, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have faced divorce rumors several times. However, they have managed to dispel them using humor time and time again. The Canadian actor came across a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2015 claiming that their jam-packed schedules had gravely affected their marriage and left them with no time together. In typical fashion, Reynolds responded with snark, writing, "I wish. I could use a little 'me time.'" 

As Page Six reported, Lively took a similarly lighthearted approach to an Instagram post about them splitting up in 2024, writing, "haha they wish" with a laughing emoji in a Story. Still, people can't help but notice that Reynolds and Lively's marriage has several red flags. For instance, many Redditors felt that a clip of the couple posing for photos at the premiere of "Another Simple Favor" showed that they were actually at odds behind the scenes and were playing up their relationship for the cameras. 

However, a body language expert exclusively told The List that Reynolds and Lively hating each other was a ridiculous claim. Traci Brown, CSP, a body language expert and behavior analyst, stated the celebrity couple's body language showed obvious signs of affection, saying, "Look how when they do stand together for the shot they're glued down the middle. That's what to look for to find a couple who's doing well together. They have it." Despite everything, the frequency of these unsavory rumors still raises the question: Are they doing as well as they claim they are?

Over the years, there has been some speculation that Ryan Reynolds cheated on his ex-wife Scarlett Johansson with Blake Lively. However, in August 2024, journalist and New York Times best-selling writer Cat Marnell added fuel to the rumors by sharing a since-deleted tweet claiming that Reynolds and Lively first hooked up in New Orleans around 2011 when they were filming "Green Lantern." 

Marnell even claimed that some Us Weekly employees had caught wind of the scandal, but couldn't break the story because of pressure from Lively and Reynolds' teams. However, the supposed pressure didn't stop the magazine's employees from discussing their story with Marnell at gatherings. But the Canadian actor shared a different story about when they went from co-workers to lovers. 

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2016, the Canadian actor claimed their romantic connection blossomed when they were on a double date as friends about a year after they wrapped up "Green Lantern." Although neither Reynolds nor Lively has publicly addressed the affair rumors, it does seem like his first marriage ended on good terms, since Johansson has had nothing but nice things to say about her ex-husband since their split announcement in December 2010. However, that hasn't stopped people from speculating that she may have hinted at a glaring red flag in their marriage in a May 2013 chat with Marie Claire by saying, "I don't mind the occasional check-in, but when somebody is passive-aggressively jealous, it's really unattractive because it shows a sort of insecurity" (via ABC).

In May 2025, Justin Baldoni's legal team subpoenaed Taylor Swift to be a witness in his legal case against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. As Page Six noted, in his filings, the director claimed that "The Shallows" star made a reference to "Game of Thrones" in a text and labeled Swift as one of her "dragons" and herself as their owner, Daenerys Targaryen. In a statement obtained by People shortly afterward, a rep for the "Blank Space" hitmaker wrote off the subpoena as a means to get added media attention to the case. 

They also made it clear that Swift played no part in the film's making, outside of licensing her song "My Tears Ricochet" to the film. Then, a confidant of Swift's informed People that her tight-knit bond with Lively and Reynolds had soured because of the lawsuit, saying, "Their friendship has halted," they continued. "Taylor wants no part in this drama." However, another source insisted that they were "not no longer friends" and were simply spending some time apart. 

Even an Us Weekly source similarly stated that Swift was torn between her loyalty to her long-standing friendship with Reynolds and Lively and her need to secure her legal and emotional interests. By then, of course, we had already seen two major signs that the trio's bond was on the rocks. At the end of April 2025, Swift's beau, Travis Kelce reportedly unfollowed Reynolds on Instagram. The "Red Notice" actor only added more fuel to the rumors by ignoring reporter's questions about his falling out with Kelce at Green Day's Hollywood Walk of Fame.