Media Moments Blake Lively Can Never Erase

Whether you’re a fan of the hit teen drama “Gossip Girl” or you have an affinity for suspenseful thrillers like “The Shallows” and “A Simple Favor,” you’ll definitely know the name Blake Lively. The Los Angeles-born star followed in the footsteps of her late father, Ernie Lively, as she took up a career in acting. She got her big break in 2005 playing Bridget Vreeland in “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” before taking on the iconic role of it-girl Serena van der Woodsen.

Starring in “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 thrust Lively into the spotlight, but she has had quite a transformation over the years. Lively worked especially hard to distance herself from Serena’s party-girl image in the early 2010s, diversifying her career with more serious dramatic roles in movies like “The Age of Adaline” and “A Simple Favor.” This ultimately put her on the path to one of the biggest roles of her career, playing Lily Bloom in the big screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, “It Ends With Us,” in August, 2024.

But as Lively’s career and fame has ballooned — aided by her marriage to fellow actor Ryan Reynolds — so has her presence in the media and public eye. And it’s no secret that she’s been at the center of several press storms throughout her career. From public feuds to interview debacles, these are the biggest media moments Blake Lively can never erase.

Balancing out Blake Lively’s role as party girl Serena van der Woodsen in “Gossip Girl” is New York’s Queen Bee Blair Waldorf, played by Leighton Meester. The TV BBFs have some major conflicts and fallings out during the show’s six seasons, but Serena and Blair are always there for each other when it counts. However, Lively and Meester weren’t as close as their characters behind the scenes. In fact, the actors were plagued by rumors of a real-life rivalry, which continued long after the show was over.

Weighing in on their rumored feud in 2017, “Gossip Girl” executive producer Joshua Safran confirmed to Vanity Fair that “Blake and Leighton were not friends.” However, he was quick not to fan the flames of their rivalry, adding: “They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair.” Their co-star, Michelle Trachtenberg, issued a similar statement during the interview, but fans of the show believe the cast and crew were simply trying to downplay the truth about Lively and Meester’s relationship.

Although Safran’s statement makes it seem like Lively and Meester simply weren’t close on set because they had different personalities, there is some evidence that their rivalry was more intense. Fans have taken particular issue with a comment Lively made during a “Gossip Girl” panel interview at Paleyfest in 2008, when she compared working with Meester and their male co-stars to acting with monkeys (“Chuck has a pet monkey with coordinating outfits”). Although she quickly made it clear she was joking, it’s comments like this that fanned the flames of their rumored rivalry.

Even when they spend all day in front of the camera, no actor is perfect, and it’s easy to make a mistake or slip up in an interview. Just look at Tom Holland; the “Spider-Man” star is famed for giving away Marvel spoilers. But there’s a difference between a slip up about spoilers and using a blatantly offensive word, which Blake Lively did during an interview for “Gossip Girl.”

Appearing alongside Leighton Meester for an interview with Nylon TV, she attempted to shut down rumors of their real-life feud. But in doing so, she used a transphobic slur. “If you read the gossip magazines, everybody [in the cast] is dating everyone, everybody hates everyone, everybody has had like tons of plastic surgery and they’re actually men and tr***ies. It’s just like you don’t listen to the rumors,” Lively said.

Lively used the same slur twice more in interviews around the same time, once in relation to her own physical appearance and again when she said she hoped to have a female or transgender child in the future to share accessories with. Lively has never publicly addressed using the offensive term in these interviews, though they frequently resurface online.

Blake Lively’s relationship with Ryan Reynolds began after the pair met on the set of 2011’s “Green Lantern.” Although it was a critical flop, the superhero movie was responsible for bringing together one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples. After just over a year of dating, the pair married in September, 2012. For the ceremony, the couple chose to write their own vows and exchange them in an intimate service at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Unfortunately, what should have simply been one of the happiest days of their lives became shrouded in controversy as the location they chose was on grounds which had once been a slave plantation. Their choice of venue became a PR disaster, with the couple facing a lot of backlash — especially Lively, who was dubbed “plantation princess” by critics online. However, it wasn’t until 2020 that Lively and Reynolds decided to publicly address it.

While speaking to Fast Company, Reynolds called their venue choice “a giant f***ing mistake.” He added: “It’s something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for … It’s impossible to reconcile. What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest. What we saw after was a place built upon devastating tragedy.”

Unfortunately, Blake Lively’s “Gossip Girl” interviews aren’t the only ones that have resurfaced and sparked controversy. It’s certainly hard to forget her infamous interview with journalist Kjersti Flaa in 2016 as part of the press tour for Lively’s thriller, “Cafe Society.” In fact, Flaa has since reposted the interview on her YouTube channel and called Lively out for making it an unbearable experience.

Flaa met with Lively and her co-star Parker Posey to talk about their movie. She began the interview by congratulating Lively on her second pregnancy, which was public knowledge at the time. “Congrats on your little bump,” Flaa said, but Lively sarcastically fired back the same words, which the interviewer found very upsetting. She later told the Daily Mail that the comment “left me almost paralyzed. To be honest, it hurts because I obviously wasn’t pregnant and I could never get pregnant, so to me that comment was like a bullet.”

While the old adage “there’s no such thing as bad press” proves to be a popular phrase, this interview seems to have been bad all round. After that introduction, the interview continued, but Lively spoke more to Posey than Flaa, with the interviewer sharing that she felt Lively was being difficult on purpose. The two actors seemed to bristle at innocuous questions, such as ones about their characters’ wardrobes. “I was there so they could promote a movie. I was invited to meet them. It certainly did not feel like that. I felt belittled and ignored, and it made me question if I ever wanted to do these types of interviews again,” Flaa stated.

One of the most notable movies in Blake Lively’s filmography is the psychological thriller “A Simple Favor,” which saw her co-star alongside “Pitch Perfect’s” Anna Kendrick and “Crazy Rich Asians” actor Henry Golding. The movie was a hit with critics, but most of the buzz at the time of its release was about Lively’s “feud” with Kendrick. In fact, it was rumored that they hated each other on set, but this was completely blown out of proportion by the media — at least according to the “Twilight” alum.

Opening up to BuzzFeed (via Express) in an interview about Lively being an hour late to set because of a scheduling error, Kendrick said to her co-star, “that was the day I decided I hate you.” But it was allegedly all said in jest, as the pair were also seen gushing about each other in subsequent interviews. So it seems that their humorous banter was simply taken out of context. And given that Lively and Kendrick both signed on to return for the “A Simple Favor” sequel, it seems rumors of their feud were greatly exaggerated after all.

Lively previously addressed false media reports about her life. “There have been so many things written about me that are untrue,” she told Vogue in 2014. She added that she tries not to put too much stock in what’s written about her online instead of trying to please everyone.

Ever since her role on “Gossip Girl,” Blake Lively has become known as something of a fashion icon. While starring on The CW show, Lively drew from her character’s sense of style and she now famously styles herself. “I mean, it’s not hard in that we all dress ourselves every morning. So once you have the clothes, you just pick out what to wear like any other human being does,” she told Women’s Wear Daily in 2018. But as Lively pointed out in that interview, she has access to designers that regular people do not. That’s how she was able to make her incredible 2022 Met Gala dress transformation happen.

Lively arrived at the event, which she was co-chairing alongside her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and former Vogue editor Anna Wintour, in an elegant copper gown, but it completely transformed as she walked down the red carpet. “I arrived copper and then, like New York City classic architecture, I patinaed,” she explained to Vogue on the carpet, referring to the blue film that covers bronze metals after oxidation. Blake’s transformation involved her dress unfolding to reveal a bright blue-green train, and she turned her gloves inside out to match. Explaining the design, which adhered to the theme “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” Lively added: “This dress is an homage to New York City and so many of the classic iconic buildings.” She completed her New York-inspired ensemble with a Lorraine Schwartz crown, which was a tribute to the Statue of Liberty. Lively’s transformation quickly set the internet on fire, with Ryan Reynolds’ adoring reaction added a wholesome touch to the viral moment.

Blake Lively sent the internet into a frenzy again when she joined her famous BFF, popstar Taylor Swift, at the Super Bowl in 2024. Lively and Swift brought an iconic fashion moment to the major football event as they cheered on the “Folklore” singer’s beau, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, as they faced (and beat) the San Francisco 49ers.

Swift opted for an all-black moment (apart from her classic red lip) with a fitted corset top and crystal slit jeans, while Lively donned a bold outfit. She paired a red Adidas x Balenciaga tracksuit with a white cropped tank top, and accessorized the outfit with stacks of chunky gold Tiffany jewelry around her neck and wrists. Lively explained to People that this was a conscious choice: “Because I style myself, I was like, what’s the sort of character that allows me to go out to something that’s a lot of stimulation and attention [like the Super Bowl] … what’s the way in?” Although some of Lively’s critics feel the outfit completely missed the mark, the actor felt confident with her style, completing her ensemble with retro curls inspired by her sister.

While football fans had their eye on the game, everyone else was looking at Lively and Swift in the stands. Their appearance goes down as one of the major pop-culture moments of 2024 as Lively — and the internet — got caught up in the fanfare of Swift and Kelce’s blossoming romance.

It’s clear from the way they talk about each other that Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, are completely in love. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it just by looking at their social media posts, as they usually involve more trolling than signs of affection. Over the years, this has become one of the things Lively and Reynolds have become known for. They’ve famously wished the other happy birthday with photos that have their face cropped out and then, of course, there was the time that Reynolds said he would use his wife as a human shield to protect their kids while accepting his Hollywood star.

The couple brought forth another of these hilarious internet moments during the 2024 Super Bowl. Lively was obviously otherwise engaged during the game with Taylor Swift cheering on Travis Kelce — a fact the whole world seemed to know but Reynolds. Reynolds hilariously took to Instagram to ask his viewers: “Has everyone seen the #Deadpool trailer? Also has anyone seen my wife?” In the photo, the actor posed next to the TV, which was paused on a clip of his character from the “Deadpool and Wolverine” trailer. Lively responded later on her Instagram Story (via The Independent) and mocked her husband as she posed next to the same Deadpool trailer. Alongside the picture, she wrote: “Honey, I’m home. My [day] was good. Yours?”

In March 2024, the Prince and Princess of Wales shared a sweet family photo of Kate and their three children on their official Instagram account to celebrate Mother’s Day in the U.K. However, the post was quickly flagged for “image manipulation.” It was initially thought that the princess had been photoshopped into the image as she had been away from the public eye following her abdominal surgery, though it was later revealed that the photoshop was used for the placement of Princess Charlotte’s hand. Responding to the claims of image manipulation on X, the Princess of Wales explained: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.”

The royal’s Photoshop fail became something of an online meme in subsequent weeks, and like many other social media users, Blake Lively jumped on the bandwagon and post of her own. The actor shared an exaggeratedly photoshopped image as a promo for her drinks company Betty Buzz that features a random lemon falling from the sky. However, shortly after this, the Princess of Wales announced her cancer diagnosis, after which Lively took the photo down.

Although she didn’t mention Kate by name, she seemingly felt bad for poking fun at the royal’s photoshopping efforts. Lively apologized on her Instagram Stories (via People), writing: “I feel like I have to acknowledge this. I made a silly post around the ‘Photoshop fails’ frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I’m sorry. Sending love and well wishes to all, always.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds had quite a busy summer in 2024 with the latter’s superhero blockbuster “Deadpool and Wolverine” premiering at the end of July, closely followed by the release of “It Ends With Us” on August 9. Lively and Reynolds were front and center at the premieres for both movies, and Reynolds even made surprise appearances at press events for “It Ends With Us” romantic drama. Although this was no doubt supposed to come across as cute and supportive (as Reynolds also worked behind the scenes of the movie), fans have taken issue with the way the Hollywood couple cross-promoted their movies.

Lively also faced backlash for not speaking openly about domestic violence in interviews, despite this being the subject of the movie. Instead, the actor stuck to talking about other aspects of her character, Lily Bloom, as she apparently felt strongly this was not the only part of her identity worth discussing. Lively used a lot of her interviews to talk about Lily’s wardrobe, much of which came from her own closet, as well as jewelry choices for her character. Clips of Lively’s press interviews soon started going viral — but not in a good way. She was accused of not promoting the movie seriously and billing it as rom-com rather than a serious drama about violence in relationships when she told viewers to “grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it!” (via TikTok).

Blake Lively didn’t just end up in the middle of a media storm because of what she said in her “It Ends With Us” press interviews, but also because of who she said it with — or rather, who she didn’t. Lively got pretty close with most of her co-stars during filming, especially Isabela Ferrer, who played the younger version of Lily Bloom, and she participated in many group interviews for the film. However, director and star Justin Baldoni was notably absent from these, as he opted to do all his interviews solo and didn’t take any pictures with Lively at the movie premiere. This separation quickly sparked rumors of a rift between Lively and Baldoni, which immediately sparked public interest.

The controversy between Lively and Baldoni is complex. There was initial speculation that Baldoni opted to do his press solo so he could do exactly what he intended to do with this movie, which was to shine a light on domestic violence. “The message is the most important thing,” he told Today. But, in the same interview, Baldoni alluded to clashes behind the scenes. While neither Lively nor Baldoni have addressed any issues directly, the internet is abuzz with theories. Rumors have been swirling that Lively stepped on his toes as a director, while others claim that Lively felt Baldoni fat-shamed her on set and lingered too long during a kiss scene. Some could say that their silence speaks volumes, but the rumor-mill has taken it upon itself to fill in all the gaps.