Ryan Reynolds is sharing one of his family’s most special traditions.
On Friday, April 25, the actor, 48, attended Acadia Pharmaceuticals’ New York City panel for Parkinson’s Awareness Month and opened up to PEOPLE about his father’s life with the disease. The Deadpool & Wolverine star’s father James Chester died in 2015 at age 74 after living with Parkinson’s disease for nearly 20 years.
After his father’s death, Reynolds learned of his dad’s struggle with hallucinations and delusions — two lesser-known symptoms of Parkinson’s — and partnered with the educational campaign More to Parkinson’s, which offers resources to patients and caregivers. During an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, he opened up about why he thinks his three daughters, whom he shares with wife Blake Lively, would have changed his father’s life “profoundly” as they did for him.
“I think my dad, being a father of four boys, if he had met these three little girls that we have, I think it would’ve changed profoundly if I really do,” he said. “Obviously they changed me profoundly, but he really would’ve benefited. I think actually, I know this sounds maybe [like] a stretch…but I think his health would’ve improved if he’d been able to spend some time with them.
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Reynolds also shared the special tradition that his father did with him and his brothers that he passed onto his three girls.
“The one thing I do have is every year he sent away to the Canadian Mint and he would buy the packet of coins. It was probably $15 and it wasn’t very extravagant, but every year, all my brothers, we all have from the year we’re born to the last time he did it,” he shared.
“My youngest daughter, Betty, is kind of obsessed with it. That’s sort of our thing,” he continued. “We actually traveled to the Canadian Mint, [and]…I felt like I was taking my dad with us and I do the same thing. I get them [a] package. They don’t even know. I mean, they know, but they don’t care yet. They will later maybe.”
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Since tying the knot in 2012, Reynolds and Lively have welcomed three adorable daughters: Betty, 5, Inez, 8, and James, 10. In February 2023, Lively shared that she and Reynolds had quietly welcomed their fourth baby, son Olin, 2.
In addition to having famous parents, the Reynolds brood has global popstar Taylor Swift as a godmother. The “Betty” singer revealed her special title on Instagram in July 2024 when she referred to the Reynolds as her “godkids’ sperm donor.”
Despite having four kids, the Free Guy actor has not completely dismissing the idea of adding more children to the mix. In July 2024, Reynolds joked that he and Lively might not be done having kids, telling E! News, “The more the merrier. As many as possible. As many little heartbeats as possible, just running around, wrecking stuff in the house. I love it. Let’s have more!”
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