Ryan Reynolds says he and Blake Lively will 'always be deeply and unreservedly sorry' for plantation wedding
Couple married at a former slave plantation in 2012
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Ryan Reynolds has opened up about his and Blake Lively’s wedding, explaining that the celebration held at the former slave plantation is “something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for”.
The Deadpool actor reflected on the couple’s regret over their decision to hold their 2012 wedding at a South Carolina plantation in a new interview with Fast Company.
“It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for,” he said. “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.”
In May of last year, Pinterest announced it had banned plantation-style wedding content on the platform.
“Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity,” a spokesperson for Pinterest told The Independent at the time. “Plantations represent none of those things.”
According to Reynolds, who revealed he and Lively got married again at their home years later, the shame of their first wedding encouraged them to become better people.
Explaining that “shame works in weird ways,” the father-of-three said: “A giant f***ing mistake like that can either cause you to shut down or it can reframe things and move you into action.
“It doesn’t mean you won’t f*** up again. But re-patterning and challenging lifelong social conditioning is a job that doesn’t end.”
The actor’s admission comes after he and Lively acknowledged on their social media accounts in May their previous ignorance in regards to systemic racism following global protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd.
In the statements, the couple said they are dedicated to raising their three daughters, James, Inez, and Betty, differently.
"We’ve never had to worry about preparing our kids for different rules of law or what might happen if we’re pulled over in the car. We don’t know what it’s like to experience that life day in and day out. We can’t imagine feeling that kind of fear and anger. We’re ashamed that in the past, we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is,” the couple wrote in part. “We’re committed to raising our kids so they never grow up feeding this insane pattern and so they’ll do their best to never inflict pain on another being consciously or unconsciously.”
Reynolds and Lively also donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defence Fund.
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