Ryan Reynolds recounts friend’s betrayal

CEBU, Philippines – Ryan Reynolds’s best friend of 25 years tried to sell photos of his baby, the actor revealed in an interview with GQ magazine.

The “Deadpool” star, 38, said that one of the happiest times of his life — the December birth of his daughter with wife Blake Lively, 28 — was marred when a member of his inner circle tried to cash in on him.

“A guy that I’d known for my whole life, one of my closest friends growing up, he had been shopping pictures of my baby around,” Reynolds recounted. “I kind of got in front of it, which is good. But it was a slightly dark period.”

Reynolds, who’s notoriously private about his marriage (the couple never released wedding or baby photos), compared the experience to “a death,” calling it, “one of those devastating things to find out.”

Apparently, the friend was trying to make a quick buck. “Yeah, just for money. I don’t think he thought he would ever be caught,” Reynolds said. “But it’s a pretty narrow group of people that I would send photos like that to. They’re just my closest family and my closest friends: ‘Here, us in the delivery room!’”

When the writer suggested that the friend should have just asked for a check, Reynolds replied, “Well, I think he’d asked for a check enough times where I was like, ‘There’s no more checks to be had.’”

Reynolds said they had a “pretty strongly worded conversation,” but it probably didn’t go beyond a few curse words and then dead air at the end of the line. “It was so kind of shocking. There isn’t really a conversation to have. It’s just, ‘Oh, well, now I’m never going to see you or talk to you again, unfortunately.’”

Although James was born eight months ago, Reynolds says he’s still figuring it all out. He has learned at least one thing, though. “The one piece of advice I would say is: Don’t listen to any advice. Because there’s nothing you can do to prepare for it.”

The actor has been considered one of the sexiest stars in Hollywood for years, but now the father is only interested in his passion projects and his family; he and Lively even decided to raise their daughter in a rustic home outside of New York City, away from the limelight. But he admits he surprised himself at his natural instincts.

“I’m surprised how patient I am with it. I feel like I could sometimes have a bit of a short fuse, but there’s just been this weirdly endless supply of patience,” he explains.

“I have no problem waking up five times in the middle of the night and changing diapers, and as exhausted as you get, I have this stupid grin on my face all the time. And that’s not because I have a nanny or something like that. It’s just us right now, and I love it.”

Some of his worry might have stemmed from the not-so-easy relationship he and his brothers had with their dad. “I can’t say I had an easy relationship with my father, and I can’t say my brothers did either, but I look at each of my older brothers, and they’re all great fathers. So I had some good examples, but I don’t think you really necessarily need examples.”