Ryan Reynolds Reveals Why He ‘Soft' Parents His 4 Kids with Blake Lively, but Jokes They’re Still 'Spawns of Satan'
- - Ryan Reynolds Reveals Why He ‘Soft' Parents His 4 Kids with Blake Lively, but Jokes They’re Still 'Spawns of Satan'
Bailey Richards, Mary ParkNovember 19, 2025 at 11:07 PM
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Ryan Reynolds in October 2025 -
Ryan Reynolds opened up about "soft parenting" his four kids with wife Blake Lively while speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CMO Summit on Nov. 18
The actor also joked that his children are still "spawns of Satan" at the New York City event
Reynolds and Lively share four kids: James, 10, Inez, 9, Betty, 6, and Olin, 2
Ryan Reynolds says he didn’t have “soft parenting” growing up, but he’s glad he does now.
The Deadpool & Wolverine star, 49, opened up about using gentler parenting strategies with his four children with wife Blake Lively — and what exactly that means for the kids — while speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CMO Summit in New York City on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Asked about whether he thinks the “resilience” and “drive” he gained during childhood — which manifests in the dedication he has to his work — will be passed on to his children, Reynolds first offered a joking reply. “I don't know," he said. "It's a worry, you know: ‘God I'm not f------ them up enough?’”
“Soft parenting is new, right? I didn't have that,” said Reynolds, before revealing his own philosophies on the matter, as it relates to his kids James, 10, Inez, 9, Betty, 6, and Olin, 2.
"There's not a lot of yelling or punishments or anything like that,” the father of four said before quickly clarifying: “But I'll tell you something. I don't think … I really don't believe that you have to be screwed up, f----- up, to make good stuff.”
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Ryan Reynolds with Blake Lively and kids James and Ines in 2016
Rather, Reynolds said at the WSJ summit, gentler parenting allows for kids to “feel safe,” which he believes leads to better decision-making. Having “those challenges when you're younger, really taught people how to get themselves to a place of safety,” he said, adding that it makes people feel like they “earned it.”
“But if you're just in a place of safety, you make great decisions,” he continued. “You really kind of work from a place that isn't fight or flight. You actually get to be thoughtful, and you get to think about everybody in the room.”
“If I'm making a joke and it involves someone's name, I'm not going to make that, and it will not be in the final product unless I talk to that person, they feel good about it because I don't punch down,” Reynolds said. “And I think that's all operating from a place of abundance and not scarcity. … and safety.”
That being said, the Wrexham A.F.C. co-owner then joked, there are still plenty of challenges that arise. “And I think my kids feel safe,” he said. “Are they still, like, spawns of Satan? Yes. Am I calling myself the Satan this moment? Yes. But they are. They are.”
“They are still kids,” added Reynolds.
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Ryan Reynolds in April 2025
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The Proposal actor has previously opened up about leaning into gentler parenting strategies with his young kids — and particularly, how different that looks from his own upbringing.
Last fall, while speaking at HubSpot’s INBOUND tech conference in Boston, the father of four revealed that he took a “workshop on conflict resolution” that “changed my entire life.”
“I just didn't know how to process things that I felt. Because I [had a] scarcity mindset when I was younger,” he then explained. “I didn't know how to unfold that thing in your brain that conditions you just always to win or be right.”
“Parents today are so different. We're so soft. I don't yell. I grew up with like — it was nuts, it was an improvised militia,” he joked at the conference, later adding that “now it's like, I can go look at all my resources for parenting and remind myself how to be perfectly compassionate.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
