This Little Girl, Who Started School at 3, Charmed Leo DiCaprio Then Fell for This Son of a Cop

• This star's mother inadvertently raised her to become an actress.
• Her future husband had unconventional skills as an eight-year-old.
• She had the most inconspicuous birth announcement in Hollywood this year.

This future starlet was tall enough to pass as a first grader at three. Her mother enrolled her in school early so her brother would not be alone.

However, her napping penchant had her mom take her out of school after a few weeks. Her destiny was not as a child progeny graduating from university before hitting double digits; she was to follow her dad into the entertainment business.

Blake Lively's father moved the family out of the south to Los Angeles, California, when he was cast in the pilot for "The Dukes of Hazzard." Later, he played his youngest child's father in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

Lively was the only one in her family born and raised in L.A. However, her Southern manners and love for "sugary and cheesy and fried" food made her distinct from other Angelenos.

As the youngest of five, she would observe her older siblings and listen to their stories and those of her mom. "My mom tells the most amazing stories," she said, adding:

"In a way, she was kind of raising me to be a great actress without even realizing it."

A more overt preparation for a life of acting was her parents' acting classes she attended instead of having a babysitter. "When I got older, I knew all the drills so well that I felt fine getting up on stage. Without them, I'd still probably be hiding under my mom's skirt," she conceded.

Early in her acting career, she was linked to one of Hollywood's most notorious playboys, Leonardo DiCaprio. US Weekly published photos of the 23-year-old "Gossip Girl" star and DiCaprio, 36, holding hands while on an after-dinner walk in Monte Carlo in May 2011.

While neither camp ever confirmed the liaison, the actor reportedly introduced her as his girlfriend on one occasion. They were said to have met in November 2010 and kissed at a Hollywood party that January.

Blake Lively's Future Husband Was Briefly Married to Another Famous Hollywood Blonde

Ryan Reynolds was also the youngest child in a big family, but this is where the similarities between his childhood and Lively's end. He grew up in Vancouver, Canada, with three older brothers. His father was a "tough guy" police officer who did not talk freely.

His mother was the opposite and "nurtured" the performer in him. Reynolds has admitted that he and his brothers played rough, regularly "destroying" their house. By age eight, he could "patch and drywall."

He started acting at thirteen but quit the business for a few years, making his way to L.A. to do improv at 19. When the budding star was not accepted at Groundlings, he got an agent and was cast in the sitcom "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place."

In his thirties, he married fellow actor Scarlett Johansson in an intimate ceremony in September 2008 at a wilderness retreat. The Canadian relished married life, saying, "You get to hang out with your best buddy every day."

The marriage was short-lived, with Johansson initiating the split after two years. In a joint statement in December 2010, they said, "We entered our relationship with love, and it's with love and kindness we leave it." The divorce was finalized the following July.

The Moment 'Fireworks' Went off between Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively

Playing the titular superhero in DC's "Green Lantern" is not a standout in Reynolds' filmography, but it made a lasting mark on his life. Lively portrayed his love interest, Carol Ferris, and the two formed a platonic connection during filming in 2010.

At the time, he was still married to Scarlett Johansson, and she was in an on-again-off-again relationship with her "Gossip Girl" co-star Penn Badgley. She finally called it quits for good from Badgley that October.

In June 2011, Reynolds and Lively attended the premiere of their film as co-stars, only sparking romance rumors a few months later. They were seen together in Boston in October of that year, where he was filming "R.I.P.D."

As friends, they tried to set each other up with prospective partners, but it would be a "good year-and-a-half" that they realized they should date each other.

While on a double date, where they were each with another partner, there were "fireworks" between the pair, making it somewhat awkward for their respective dates.

The couple wed on September 9, 2012, at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Details of the lavish affair have been sparse, but the entertainment was spectacular. They had a children's choir at the ceremony, and Florence Welch performed.

There was some blowback for them tying the knot at a plantation. "It's something we'll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for," the "Deadpool" actor said eight years later.

While there are many paparazzi photos and promotional snaps of the pair, they only made their red carpet debut as a couple on May 5, 2014, at the Met Gala.

What Lively appreciates most in their relationship is that he is still her friend first and foremost. She explained that it was not just in their history, "but in everyday life" he is her "friend first." She suspects that is the secret to happiness.

They expanded their family on December 16, 2014, with the birth of their daughter, James. Their daughter Inez came along around September 2016, followed by the announcement of Betty's inception in October 2019.

Sporting a gold sequined mini dress over her baby bump, the "A Simple Favor" actress low-key shared the news of their fourth pregnancy at the 10th Annual Forbes Power Women's Summit in mid-September 2022.

Lively slyly publicized the birth of their fourth baby on Superbowl Sunday, February 12, 2023. She posted a photo flanked by Reynolds and her mother-in-law in which her stomach is once again flat in blue jeans.