Ryan Reynolds Jokes Babysitter Taylor Swift Is Costing Him a Fortune

There’s only so far new money goes.

And when it comes to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ childcare for their children—daughters James, 9, Inez, 7, and Betty, 4, and a fourth child born in 2023—their friend Taylor Swift definitely isn’t the cheapest babysitting option.

After all, when his Deadpool & Wolverine costar Hugh Jackman joked that the “Last Great American Dynasty” singer really is the family’s nanny, Ryan had the perfect response.

“The cost of that is…” the 47-year-old quipped in an exclusive interview with E! News, “I believe the accountant said, ‘Cost-prohibitive.’ But I think what he meant was, ‘Cost-insane-what-are-you-doing-I’m-no-longer-you’re-accountant.’” (For more with Hugh and Ryan, tune into E! News tonight, July 22 at 11 p.m.)

But while Swifties may have had their fingers crossed about the rumored Taylor Swift cameo in this newest installment of the Deadpool franchise—which premieres July 26—Ryan was quick to put that rumor to bed.

“I will say once and for all that the cameo thing with Taylor,” the Free Guy actor explained, “because she’s our friend—that is not in this film.”

Though he does know where the Grammy winner would shine.

“I always do say that if anyone ever were to take over the role of Deadpool, actually Taylor would be very good,” Ryan revealed. “Because that’s a superpower that I don’t know that she shows everyone too often: She’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.”

So here’s a toast to real friends, because after all, Taylor, Blake and Ryan are just that.

Not only is the couple often grabbing dinner and hanging out with the Tortured Poets Department artist, but they’ve also attended a number of her concerts over the years, where Taylor has been sure to give them a sweet onstage shoutout.

Plus, Taylor famously included a nod to the couple’s first three children on folklore, during which she revealed their third daughter’s name in the song “betty.”

So when it came to her newest release, TTPD, fans wondered if Taylor would do it again—and Ryan was happy to lean into the joke.

"We always wait for Taylor to tell us what the child's name will be," he joked with Today's Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie in May. "And, we'll say this: we're still waiting, so Taylor, let's maybe start. You know, she's a prolific writer. I mean, what are we doing here? And lazy is not a word I'd attach to Taylor."

For more of their sweet friendship over the years, keep reading.

—Reporting by Emily Curl 

(E! and Today are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

While on tour in Australia, Taylor Swift spent time at Warner Bros. Movie World theme park with Blake Lively, who was also there filming The Shallows.

"Yesterday was such an amazing day off—roller coasters, kangaroos and LOLs with @blakelively," the "Lavender Haze" singer wrote on Instagram at the time. Soon after, Blake was spotted shaking it off at Taylor's 1989 World Tour concert in Adelaide.

This first sighting of the duo hanging out came just three months after the Gossip Girl alum was accused of throwing shade at Taylor's "Bad Blood" music video on Instagram. But Blake denied that now they had baaaaaad blood, writing on Twitter, "Umm whoever thought I was throwin shade clearly doesn't know I have a 'Taylor Swift Please Be My Wife Voo Doo Doll.'"

Blake also shared a backstage photo of a few family members with Taylor on tour. "Look how rad she is here making my niece Heather feel like a rock star," she wrote. "Love my Canadian family almost as much as I love Taylor Lively. I mean Swift. Ok, FIIINE we can hyphenate our last names. Xo Blake Swift-Lively 4eva."

For Taylor's 25th birthday, Blake sent a very special surprise: a cat pie.

In a since-deleted Instagram post, Taylor shared a photo of the pastry (featuring her beloved cats Meredith and Olivia), with a message on it that reads "Happy Thanksgiving Birthday."

Taylor captioned the post, "Blake wins at birthday pies," adding, "I honestly can't stop laughing rn."

Blake, pregnant with her second child at the time, and her husband Ryan Reynolds attended Taylor's Fourth of July party at her house in Rhode Island alongside celeb guests Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, Ruby Rose, Uzo Aduba, HAIM, Karlie Kloss and Taylor's then-boyfriend Tom Hiddleston. (Yes, they were present for the infamous "I Heart T.S." t-shirt's debut.)

Taylor traveled to upstate New York to attend Blake's baby shower held at the Bedford Post Inn. And it wouldn't be the last time the Grammy winner would make the trip to the couple's north-of-New-York-City home.

In October 2016, a source exclusively told E! News that Taylor spent a weekend with Blake and Ryan, even visiting Blake at the hospital after she gave birth to the pair's second daughter, Inez.

After Taylor released a song titled "Gorgeous," off her sixth studio album, reputation, fans theorized that the child's voice featured in the track's intro belonged to James Reynolds, Blake and Ryan's oldest daughter. (Blake and Ryan "liked" Taylor's preview of the song on Instagram, only fueling speculation.) 

And when Taylor released her album, she officially confirmed in the liner notes that the "baby intro voice" belongs to James.

Then there was the time Blake and Ryan had the most pure reaction to hearing the track during Taylor's concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough the following year. Only love for our mom and dad. 

Taylor delighted her fans when she released a surprise album, folklore, that she recorded while isolating during the coronavirus pandemic. One song that stood out was "betty," which uses the names James, Inez and, of course, Betty. Listeners theorized that Betty was the name of Blake and Ryan's third daughter as the private pair had yet to publicly announce it. And Ryan later confirmed the revelation. 

 "The names are the names of our kids but, you know, we trust her implicitly and she's very sensitive to any of that stuff," Ryan said on an August 2021 episode of The Jess Cagle Show. "And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids' names. But, I mean, what an honor. I don't know. We thought it was pretty damn amazing. We still do."

When folklore took home the award for Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys, Taylor gave a sweet shoutout to the entire Reynolds family.

"I want to thank James, Inez and Betty and their parents," she said, "who are the second and third people that I play every new song that I write."

Taylor and Blake went from BFFs to collaborators when the Betty Buzz founder directed the music video for "I Bet You Think About Me," a vault track from Red (Taylor's Version).

"I finally got to work with the brilliant, brave, & wickedly funny @blakelively on her directorial debut," Taylor raved on Instagram and Twitter. "Join us as we raise a toast, and a little hell."

That same month, Blake and Ryan helped Taylor celebrate her performance on Saturday Night Live, enjoying a night out in New York City with Cara Delevingne, Taylor's onetime boyfriend Joe Jonas, his wife Sophie Turner and The Queen's Gambit star and that night's host Anya Taylor-Joy.

Blake and Ryan were in the audience to support Taylor when she appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival to promote the short film she directed for "all too well," the 10-minute version of her iconic 2012 breakup song about Jake Gyllenhaal.

After the release of Taylor's 10th studio album Midnights, Ryan opened up about how his and Blake's daughters feel about the superstar being a close family friend.

"I think what's most exciting for them is that for the longest time they just thought Taylor's just a, you know, like an aunt, like a friend of mommy and daddy that's very, very close, almost family," the Deadpool star explained on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show. "And then they went to a concert one day and were like, 'Ohhhhh, this isn't a hobby.'"

Ryan went on to share that their children were such fans of Taylor's tunes that her music is "like a religion in their house" and revealed he, Blake and the girls had a Taylor-themed celebration planned after his interview.

"I'm not making this up. We are having a Taylor Swift Midnights dance party right after this," Ryan said. "It's Sunday. We're headed straight to the porch where we're doing a full dance number set to Midnights—swear words included. My favorite thing is when a 3-year-old is just throwing down the F-bomb in a song and has no idea."

Shortly after it was confirmed that Taylor and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn had broken up after six years of dating, Taylor was spotted in a getaway car with Blake and Ryan. Literally.

The trio was spotted catching a ride together after having dinner at Manhattan hotspot Casa Cipriani April 19 amid Taylor's sold-out Eras stadium tour. But several days later, Taylor and Blake, who welcomed her fourth child earlier this year, ditched Ryan when they had a squad day out with Gigi Hadid and sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim. The group spent some quality time at the private club Zero Bond.

The trio of friends attended a Kanasas City Chiefs game at Met Life Stadium to support Taylor's new boyfriend Travis Kelce. 

Of the game, and of the excitement around taylor's NFL attendances, Ryan told Extra, "It's a lot of fun. The NFL right now is reaching a kind of fever pitch that is usually only reserved for the Super Bowl, but here we are at the fourth or fifth game of the year and it's already happening."

During an appearance on Today, Ryan joked that he and Blake hadn't shared the name of their fourth child yet because they were still waiting on Taylor to share the moniker with them—a nod to her song "betty" on folklore. 

"We always wait for Taylor to tell us what the child's name will be," the Deadpool & Wolverine star joked. "And, we'll say this: we're still waiting, so Taylor, let's maybe start. You know, she's a prolific writer. I mean, what are we doing here? And lazy is not a word I'd attach to Taylor." 

Later that month, Blake attended one of the Grammy winner's Eras Tour shows in Madrid, where Taylor gave an onstage shoutout to her children.