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Ryan Reynolds Said Getting Married At A Plantation Was A Giant "Mistake"

"What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy."

Shyla Watson
by Shyla Watson

BuzzFeed Staff

In 2012, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds got married at Boone Hall in South Carolina.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds smiling on a red carpet
Mike Coppola / Getty Images

For those who don't know, Boone Hall, a popular site for weddings, is first and foremost a slave plantation.

Slave cabin at Boone Hall
Joe Sohm / Universal Images Group via Getty

The antebellum era plantation is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes a Colonial Revival plantation house and nine historic slave cabins, built between 1790 and 1810, where dozens of Black people were enslaved.

The couple — who recently contributed $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund — has received backlash over the years, but have never publicly spoken out.

roni @CHRlSTITTIES

every time I see ryan reynolds and blake lively I remember they got married on a slave plantation

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shereen @delashereen

something about blake lively never sat right with me n then I found out she got married on a plantation

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Amanda Trammel @mandyb125

@imbobswaget Googles "Blake Lively plantation wedding" and my goodness...

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Well, in a new interview with Fast Company, the 43-year-old Deadpool actor addressed their plantation wedding for the first time.

Ryan Reynolds on a red carpet
Michael Loccisano

"It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for," he said. "It’s impossible to reconcile."

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively attend the premiere of "Pokemon Detective Pikachu"
Steven Ferdman / Getty Images

"What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy."

Tree-lined alley at Boone Hall
Joe Sohm / Universal Images Group via Getty

Last year, both Pinterest and online wedding-planning site The Knot restricted promotion of plantations on their sites, with a spokesperson for Pinterest saying, "Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things."

"Years ago we got married again at home, but shame works in weird ways. A giant fucking mistake like that can either cause you to shut down, or it can reframe things and move you into action."