Blake Lively had better watch out – her husband Ryan Reynolds has joked he would use her as a human shield.

The Safe House actor revealed on David Letterman’s show in the US that although Blake used to be the number one female in his life, she has been replaced by the daughter they welcomed in December – and he would do anything to protect their new arrival.

He confessed: “I used to say to [Blake], ‘I would take a bullet for you. I could never love anything as much as I love you.’ I would say that to my wife.

“And the second I looked in that baby’s eyes, I knew in that exact moment that if we were ever under attack, I would use my wife as a human shield to protect that baby.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds look loved up at a ball in New York
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds welcomed their daughter in December (Breuel-Bild/DPA/PA)

Ryan, 38, and Blake, 27, have kept many of the details about their baby to themselves, including what they have called her.

But the actor assured the talk show host that “we definitely have a name”.

He laughed: “I threw out the idea of just never naming the kid to be totally original, but we have a name. I just don’t want to say it in, like, a media context. I tell everyone who I meet, so it’ll come out.”

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively on the red carpet at Cannes
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively haven’t revealed the name of their daughter (Thibault Camus/AP/PA)

While the actor was keeping quiet about that, he did tell how much he is loving fatherhood and how he fell even more in love with Gossip Girl star Blake after she had their child.

“I’m not one for vomiting declarations of sentiment out across the airwaves, but when we had that baby, I fell more in love with my wife than I’d ever been in my entire life. I couldn’t even believe it,” he gushed.