Image Source: Getty / Rich Polk/E! Entertainment/NBC
Ryan Reynolds received the people’s icon award at the People’s Choice Awards on Tuesday, Dec. 6, but there was something else on his mind: his pregnant wife, Blake Lively, back at home. During his speech, Reynolds noted that if Lively gave birth to their fourth child while he was away at the event, he’d be in some major hot water. Watch his full speech ahead.
Reynolds took time in his speech to shout out his family, saying, “Blake and my three daughters, it’s gonna be a fourth child very soon. If it happens tonight while I’m here, I will be looking for a couch to sleep on for a while.” He joked, “I’d venture a guess that Shania Twain has an amazing couch, just saying,” looking at the singer, who won the music icon award earlier in the night. Reynolds and Lively already share James, 7, Inez, 6, and Betty, 3.
But then Reynolds returned to the more serious task at hand, continuing, “But Blake and my girls, you are quite literally my hope, my heart, my happiness. I joke that my family exhausts me, but in reality, you give me more strength than any man could possibly deserve.”
Earlier in the speech, Reynolds also honored his mom and three brothers — one of whom was his date for the evening — and his dad, who passed away a few years ago. “Boy, if he could see all the things that would be going on, he wouldn’t be impressed with this stuff,” Reynolds said of his father, “he’d be most blown away by his three little granddaughters.” He added, “Wherever he is right now, I promise you he’s probably not watching the People’s Choice Awards. He cultivated most of his opinions in life from old episodes of ‘Baywatch,’ so he’s probably doing that, is my guess.” Reynolds said, “To my original family, thank you for making me who I am. Thank you for your unfailing support of me despite some pretty damn questionable years there.”
Reynolds also used his speech to call out the people who work behind the scenes on his projects and his “work family” at his company Maximum Effort. He shouted out two of the group’s programs, The Group Effort Initiative and The Creative Ladder, which help underrepresented and marginalized creatives move into entertainment and marketing, respectively.
Reynolds’s “Free Guy” costar Lil Rel Howery presented him with the people’s icon award. Previous winners include Halle Berry, who received it in 2021; Jennifer Lopez; Jennifer Aniston; and Melissa McCarthy.
Reynolds most recently starred in Apple TV+’s “Spirited,” a new adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” and the story of Scrooge. This year, he also starred as himself in the docuseries “Welcome to Wrexham” about Wrexham A.F.C. and his and actor Rob McElhenney’s decision to buy the team. He also starred in “The Adam Project” and made a brief cameo in “Bullet Train.” Currently, he’s gearing up for production on “Deadpool 3.”