Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are committed to their marriage but spending way more time apart than people realize, according to a source, who exclusively reveals to Life & Style that the actor’s hectic schedule is making their shared dream of baby #5 increasingly unlikely. 

“Ryan has never been busier and is constantly flying over to the U.K. for his business with Wrexham A.F.A. and to L.A. to schmooze with all the studio people,” the source says.

Busy is an understatement for the Deadpool star, 47, who has been on the road promoting his upcoming film, Deadpool & Wolverine, through his company Maximum Effort Productions. The Canadian entrepreneur has few other things in the works, too.

“He’s got his brands to take care of, like Mint Mobile and Aviation Gin,” the source says. “He’s amazing at doing it all while Blake tirelessly raises the kids and relies as little as possible on the nannies.” 

While Blake, 36, is taking care of the couple’s four kids: James, 9, Inez, 7, Betty, 4, and a fourth child born in 2023, “she’s got her own movie career and brands to run as well,” the insider says. “So the two of them barely have a moment of downtime, let alone the bandwidth to plan around the best baby making schedule.”

“They do a great job with the PR and presenting this image that they’re joined at the hip, but that’s because they’re brilliant with their timing.” 

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Moreover, Ryan told E! News in July he wants a fifth kid, regardless of the chaos!

“The more the merrier,” the Waiting star said. “As many as possible. As many little heartbeats as possible, just running around, wrecking stuff in the house.”

But the insider suggests that may be a tall order, considering their current schedules: “It’s not like they’re apart all the time, it’s just there’s never a long stretch of time where they can truly relax and connect the way that’s needed for most couple’s their age to conceive.” 

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively too Busy for Baby Number 5
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Blake and her superhero hubby have been making overt efforts to seize what limited time they do have together. Fans marveled at the fashionable couple as they took some extra time together to walk the red carpet for the New York City premier of Deadpool & Wolverine.

Blake wore a shoulderless maroon dress, reminiscent of her husband’s Deadpool costume in the movie, while her friend Gigi Hadid wore bright yellow to accompany Ryan’s costar, Hugh Jackman, whose character Wolverine sports a similar shade in the movie.

“They do make a big effort to get out for date nights with Taylor [Swift] at Chief’s games and concerts but even then,” the source dishes. “There are lots of people tagging along with them so the feasibility of having baby number five as far as logistics go, along with the prospect of changing diapers again down the line feels like a bit of stretch, as much as they say they’d love it.” 

“The biggest priority now is to just try and get some time together away from all the noise and take it from there.”