Long before we fell head over heels for Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively's picture-perfect marriage, and the birth of their adorable daughters, James and Ines, you'll remember the Gossip Girl actress once briefly dated 90s heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio.
The pair first sent the rumour mill into overdrive about a romance in May 2011, when they were spotted getting cosy on a yacht in Cannes, before enjoying numerous holidays together to the likes of Italy, Disneyland, and enjoying romantic days cycling together in New York City.
However, amid the pair's hectic schedules, Blake reportedly had to come up with an inventive - and somewhat bizarre - way of keeping in touch with her Titanic-starring beau, and according to Gossip Girls producer Joshua Safran, it involved dolls.
And no, not those kind of dolls.
In an interview with Vanity Fair to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the hit teen show, Safran said: 'When I think about shooting the L.A. episodes, Blake was dating [DiCaprio] at the time, and she had this thing where she had a doll that she took photos of that she sent to Leo.
'Blake was way ahead of the curve. It was pre-Instagram. She was documenting her life in photographs in a way that people were not yet doing,' he added.
Now, we're not quite sure what kind of doll Blake was sending pictures of - was it a Barbie doll? A Cabbage Patch kid? A rag doll? - but suffice to say, it's a pretty odd thing to take pictures of and send to a new boyfriend, right?
In the interview, Lively also opened up about her on and off-screen romance with fellow actor Penn Badgley with whom she enjoyed a three year relationship with during filming the Upper East Side-set series.
The 30-year-old admitted that when they first got together, they tried to keep their relationship under wraps for as long as possible.
'I remember there was one point where we were just afraid of how our personal lives overlapping our work life could be perceived by our bosses,' she said.
'[But then] we were like, "Oh no, that's exactly what they want". They wanted us all to date. They wanted us all to wear the same clothes that we're wearing on the show. They wanted that, because then it fed their whole narrative. People could buy into this world,' she added.
Discussing the strange overlap of real-life and fiction, the mother-of-two explained: 'At the time, I was wearing the same clothes and doing fashion shoots, and dating the same person that my character was dating — or sometimes that person [Dan] was my brother, you never know with Serena — and because of that, what people were projecting onto me was that I was Serena,' she continued.
'We look the same, and we acted the same as far as they could tell, because I wasn't doing anything but that show. If [Penn and I] were photographed walking down the street, they didn't know if it was a paparazzi shot or if it was a shot from the show,' she said.
However, when the duo ended their relationship in 2010, Lively and Badly both wanted worked hard to keep their personal and professional lives remained as distinct as possible, and kept their break-up a secret from their co-stars and the show's crew.
Safran explained the split took everyone by surprise. 'The shocking thing was, I found out on the set of the Season Two finale that Blake and Penn had broken up months before,'he said.
'They kept the breakup hidden from the crew, which you could never do now. I don't even know how they did it. They kept it from everybody, which is a testament to how good they are as actors. Because they did not want their personal drama to relate to the show,' he added.
The pair then had to continue working together for four seasons pretending to be in a relationship, which just goes to show how professional Lively and Badgely are.
Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.
