Reynolds and Blake feel “deep regret” about the decision, that now he sees his decision with “deep regret”.
Ryan Reynolds apologized for choosing an old slave plantation as the location for his 2012 wedding with Blake Lively.
The 43-year-old actor said he and Blake, 32, feel “deep regret” over the decision, which he now sees as a “giant mistake.”
“What we saw at the time was a Pinterest wedding venue. What we saw next was a place built on a devastating tragedy, ”Ryan explained, addressing the controversy in an interview with Fast Company.
“It’s something we’ll always regret without reservation,” admitted the Deadpool star.
“Years ago we remarried at home, but shame works strangely,” he reflected. “A giant mistake like that can make you shut down or it can rethink things and get you into action. It doesn’t mean you won’t be wrong again. But she models and challenges social conditioning again, which is a job that does not end. ”
Ryan and Blake, who now share three children, were married in Boone Hall, South Carolina, eight years ago.
While the working farm is now a thriving wedding venue, it is a former slave plantation, which has been converted into a museum with nine original slave cabins still standing.
In addition to hosting over 100 wedding ceremonies a year, Boone Hall has also appeared in numerous movies and television shows, including The Notebook and Days of Our Lives.
In October 2019, the Color of Change campaign group described celebrating weddings in former slavery sites as “inappropriate and disrespectful.”
Reynolds and Lively joined the preservation of racial injustice this year following the expansion of the Black Lives Matter movement after George Floyd’s death.
Blake and her husband Ryan made a $ 200k donation to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
In March of this year, the couple also gave $ 1 million to help Feeding America and Food Banks Canada during the coronavirus pandemic.