Blake Lively burst onto the acting scene in 2005, nabbing a killer role in ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. ‘ The California girl made her mark on telly land with her five-year run on ‘Gossip Girl’.
Before becoming Mrs Ryan Reynolds and sharing the screen with him in ‘The Green Lantern’, Blake notched up a few supporting film roles. Yet, it’s not all action and cut for this starlet, she’s been bossing it behind the camera too, directing Taylor Swift’s music video for ‘I Bet You Think About Me’.
She hails from a family of famous actors, including her dad Ernie Lively and brother Eric, known for his roles in ‘So Weird’ and ‘The L Word’.
Plus, she’s got three half-siblings in showbiz and her brother-in-law, Bart Johnson, is an actor recognised as Coach Jack Bolton from the ‘High School Musical’ films.
Here’s what you need to know about the star, from her marriage to her real name and her friendship with Taylor Swift.
(Image: BANG Showbiz.)
What is Blake Lively’s real name?
Born Blake Ellender Brown on August 25, 1987, to parents Elaine and Ernie, Blake was named after her grandmother’s brother. Chewing over her name during a chinwag with radiofree.com, she confessed: “It’s kind of embarrassing to tell people, because it sounds like a really cheesy stage name.”
“My grandma’s brother’s name was Blake, and my sister wrote it down when she was reading a family tree. And they said, ‘If it’s a boy, we’ll name him Blake, and if it’s a girl, we’ll name her Blakely’.”
“And everybody thought I was going to be a boy, and then I came out and I was a girl. And they had already been calling me Blake for months because they were positive I was going to be a boy. And they had been calling me Blake for so long, they just [kept it].”
In a candid chinwag with MTV UK, she cringed over her middlename: “It’s not a name. My mom, I think, made it up by accident. It’s not a word, it doesn’t exist.”
(Image: Getty Images)
When did Blake Lively marry Ryan Reynolds?
Blake Lively tied the knot with hunk Ryan Reynolds in September 2012 amongst a bit of a stir, after their venue – Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – copped flack for its dark past linked to Black slavery.
Opening up about the controversy, Ryan got real with Fast Company, confessing: “It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for.”
Ryan revealed: “Years ago, we got married again at home – but shame works in weird ways. A giant [expletive] mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Blake Lively’s friendship with Taylor Swift
Blake opened up about the chilling terror plot aimed at her pal Taylor’s Eras Tour gigs in Austria.
In a TikTok video posted by Access Hollywood, Blake was quizzed on her thoughts regarding “the Austria concerts”.
“Oh my gosh. I mean, how terrifying. But thank goodness that they are completely on top of that,” she responded.
Taylor had lined up three performances at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium, but on August 7, the authorities arrested two suspects planning an attack, leading to the cancellation of the shows.
The bond between Taylor and Blake has been strong for nearly a decade, having first hit it off back in 2015.
Blake was spotted cheering at Taylor’s Eras Tour with her kids in Philadelphia this May 2023 and also showed her support for Taylor and her beau Travis Kelce at the Super Bowl in February 2024.
Taylor is even the godmother to Blake and Ryan’s brood of four: James, Inez, Betty, and Olin.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
