You know that adage about marrying your best friend? Well, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are proof that it's true.
When the actor was recently asked about the secret to his beyond-cute relationship with his wife of nine years—an eon in Hollywood—Ryan had a pretty simple answer.
"We really like each other," the Red Notice star told Extra during the movie's Nov. 3 premiere event in Los Angeles. "We really liked each other before as friends beforehand. We like each other even more so now."
Indeed, back in February 2016, when Ryan appeared as a guest during SiriusXM's Entertainment Weekly Radio Deadpool special, the actor revealed that after he and Blake wrapped on their 2011 flick, Green Lantern, they realized they had way more chemistry than they first realized. And other people realized it too.
"About a year after Green Lantern had come and gone and we were both single we went on a double date," Ryan shared. "[Blake] was on a date with another guy and I was on a date with another girl."
"And it was like the most awkward date for the respective parties," he continued. "Because we were just like fireworks coming across."
As the Free Guy star—who wed Blake in September 2012 and has since welcomed three daughters, James, 6, Inez, 5, and Betty, 2—put it, "We were buddies for a long time, which I think is the best way to have a relationship, to start as friends."
And although Ryan once declared he was "not one for vomiting declarations of sentiment out across the airwaves," it's fair to say that in recent history, he's warmed up to the idea.
The most recent example? Ryan, who was honored as an entertainment and entrepreneurship innovator at this year's WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards gushed about his wife during his acceptance speech.
"I want to thank my wife, Blake," the actor shared. "She is a genius, she is a renaissance woman and she pushes me in ways that I never imagined I'd be pushed."
Living proof that perhaps the best relationships really do start from simple friendships.