It's nice to have a friend. It's even better to have two of them.
While Taylor Swift is known for her squad, there are two members of her inner circle that she's particularly close with: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. In fact, the "Anti-Hero" singer is so tight with the power couple that Blake and Ryan's children—daughters James, 8; Inez, 6; Betty, 3, and baby No. 4, whose name has not yet been revealed—call her Aunt Taylor and have played integral roles in some of her hit songs.
And after her recent breakup with Joe Alwyn, Taylor took a break from her sold-out Eras tour to spend some quality time with the Gossip Girl alum and Deadpool star in New York City before Taylor and Blake were spotted out and about with Gigi Hadid and HAIM. Multiple Tay and Blake sightings in one week? You know you love it.
So, when did Taylor's friendship with Blake and Ryan begin? Ironically enough, it started with spillage of some "Bad Blood".
Join us for the retelling of their love story. You'll need to calm down after looking back over Taylor's cute moments with Blake and Ryan and their family over the years:
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.