Truly support
independent journalism
Our mission is to provide unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds the powerful to account and exposes the truth.
Whether it's $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us in offering journalism without agenda.
It looks like Taylor Swift might be the godfather to more than one famous child.
On July 25, the 34-year-old pop star took to Instagram to congratulate actor Ryan Reynolds following the release of his latest action film, Deadpool and WolverineSwift shared a photo of herself posing alongside Reynolds, his wife Blake Lively, actor Hugh Jackman and Deadpool and Wolverine director Shawn Levy.
Under the photo, the 14-time Grammy winner celebrated the release of Reynolds and Jackman's film, while highlighting the amount of work that “one of [her] “Best friends” who were involved in the making of the Marvel movie.
“Over the past few years I’ve watched one of my best friends on the planet pour every bit of his heart, soul, sweat, time, energy, jokes, pain, joy, rebellion, darkness, and magic into this film,” Swift began her message. “He’s created the best work of his life, and this film feels like a true portal of joy, a wild escape from reality, and an abs sandwich. I don’t know how he did it.”
She joked: “But that’s Hugh! These other strangers ruined the photo and we were too polite to ask them to leave.”
The “Anti-Hero” singer then encouraged her fans to watch Deadpool and Wolverine in theaters, before making a reference to Reynolds' Deadpool character. “Shout out to Wade Wilson aka my godchildren's sperm donor!” Swift wrote.
Reynolds and Lively, who have been married since 2012, are parents to four children: nine-year-old James, seven-year-old Inez, four-year-old Betty, and one-year-old Olin. While it's unclear whether Swift is godmother to all of the couple's children, this isn't the first time the singer has received the honorable distinction. Swift is also godmother to actor Jaime King's nine-year-old son, Leo.
The “Bad Blood” singer has been close friends with Reynolds and Lively for nearly a decade. Her first contact with the band was Gossip Girl In 2015, Lively took a dig at Swift after her followers believed she was dissing Swift on social media. Amid the speculation, Lively quickly cleared up the confusion by posting a photo of her and Reynolds' family backstage with Swift during the singer's 1989 tour.
“Umm whoever thought I was throwing shade clearly doesn’t know I have a voodoo doll that says ‘Please be my wife Taylor Swift,’” she wrote at the time, alongside the hashtag #obsessed. “Look how cool she is out here making my niece Heather feel like a rock star. I love my Canadian family almost as much as I love Taylor Lively. I mean Swift. Ok FIIINE we can hyphenate our last names. Blake Swift-Lively kisses forever.”
Later that year, Swift and Lively finally met up in Australia. The “Shake It Off” singer shared a photo of the two of them, in which they could be seen holding a koala, marking the first time the future besties had posted a photo together.
For Swift fans, it may not come as a surprise that the “Karma” singer was chosen as godmother to Reynolds and Lively's children. Swift included her daughter James on her 2017 album. Reputationwhere the two-year-old can be heard saying the word “beautiful” in the opening of Swift's song, “Gorgeous.”
On his 2020 album FolkloreSwift also used the names of her daughters Inez and Betty as fictional teenage characters in the song “Betty.” During her record-breaking U.S. Eras Tour last year, Swift introduced the song by referencing her three daughters.
“I named the characters after real people in my life who I love more than anything, and their names are James, Inez and Betty,” Swift said onstage at the tour stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to USA Today.
Despite Swift mentioning her daughters' names throughout her 2020 album, the A-list couple had yet to publicly reveal their youngest daughter's name at the time. However, it didn't seem to bother the couple. Speaking to Jess Cagle during a SiriusXM Town Hall event in 2021, Reynolds explained that he and his wife were flattered when Swift decided to use her daughters' names in her song because they trust the singer “implicitly.”
“The names are our kids’ names, but you know, we trust her implicitly and she’s very sensitive to all of that. And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids beyond their names,” Reynolds said. “We thought it was pretty, pretty incredible. We still do. You know, I still walk down the street and shake my head thinking, ‘I can’t believe that happened.’”
Reynolds and Lively also welcomed a fourth child in February 2023. Earlier this week, while giving a speech at the New York City premiere of Deadpool and WolverineReynolds revealed that he and his wife named their youngest son Olin.