Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are not having a good time these days. The once fan favorite Hollywood power couple have found themselves on the receiving end of public scrutiny for the last couple of months. Their legal battle against Justin Baldoni has only added to that.
Unfortunately, even more people are coming out with their own speculations and allegations about the couple every day. Interestingly, though, it turns out this is not the first time both Lively and Reynolds have found themselves facing such deep criticism from fans.
What’s fascinating, though, is that Ryan Reynolds faced double the amount of criticism when he supported the late Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther movie.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively faced backlash for supporting Black Panther
For a couple so beloved by fans at one time, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively sure got tangled up in a multitude of controversies. Although the beginning of their relationship had come under scrutiny many times due to Reynolds being married to Scarlett Johansson when they met, it had nothing on the drama that followed their wedding.
As per People, the couple met each other in 2010 while shooting for their movie Green Lantern. By the end of the same year, Johansson and Reynolds announced their split, and in 2011 Lively and Reynolds started dating publicly.
Now, although there were a few raised eyebrows from fans, real trouble brewed when it was revealed that the Deadpool star’s wedding venue was a former slave plantation.
According to Betches, the wedding was held at the Boone Hall Plantation, which also featured a “Slave street,” and slave cabins. Obviously, both stars were heavily condemned at the time.
However, the topic got dragged back into the spotlight during the release of Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther movie. Fans are aware that it was the first Marvel movie to have a Black lead and a mostly Black ensemble cast. The Free Guy star showed his support for the historical move with a post on X (formerly Twitter).
BELIEVE. THE. HYPE. All hail the king #WakandaForever pic.twitter.com/qENThMS9qU
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) February 17, 2018
In any case, people didn’t take too kindly to the perceived hypocritical behavior and made no qualms about letting their thoughts known. Although Reynolds let the storm blow over back then, he addressed the controversy in a 2020 interview with Fast Company. According to the actor, he and his wife were “deeply and unreservedly sorry for” the incident.
It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.
The Damage, however, was done. Although most fans had more or less moved past that debacle, in light of their recent scandals, old skeletons are being dug up again.
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively faced renewed public scrutiny during the Black Lives Matter movement
As stated above, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, both faced heavy criticism for their wedding fiasco, which only got worse after Reynolds showed support for Black Panther.
Regardless, they tried to make amends once again in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement. They made a post on Instagram in its support with a caption noting their deep regret for their past actions.
We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is. We want to educate ourselves about other people’s experiences and talk to our kids about everything, all of it … especially our own complicity.
Moreover, they also announced a donation of $200,000 to the NAACP fund. To be fair, although the Hollywood power couple had gotten themselves in trouble a lot of times in the past, fans were mostly content to let old ghosts rest.
The recent scandal, though, is making a lot of people question and scrutinize both Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s actions in a new light.
Black Panther is streaming on Disney+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
