Blake Lively spoke about experiencing a “pretty intense year” amid her ongoing legal drama with It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni.
“I have had a pretty intense year,” Lively, 37, said during a Thursday, May 1 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. “This year has been full of the highest highs and lowest lows of my life.”
Lively also touched on the “fear” she believed many women feel when it comes to speaking up.
“I see so many women around afraid to speak, especially now, afraid to share their experience,” Lively said. “Fear is by design, it’s what keeps us silent.”
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She continued: “But I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak, so I do feel fortunate that I have been able to.”
The actress, who shares four children (James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty 5, and Olin, 2.) with her husband Ryan Reynolds, said that she wanted to be positive around their kids despite the drama.
“No matter what day I am having, I have to be Disneyland for them. It’s the best, it’s chaos,” she said.
The actress appeared on the talk show to promote her upcoming movie Another Simple Favor, which premiered via Prime Video on Thursday, May 1.
Lively has been on the film’s press tour alongside costar Anna Kendrick and husband Ryan Reynolds. While attending a series of events — most recently, the film’s premiere and TIME 100 Gala in New York City — Lively has stayed tight-lipped about her ongoing legal situation with Justin Baldoni.
Lively filed a lawsuit against her It Ends With Us costar and the film’s director Baldoni, 41, in December 2024 — accusing him of sexual harassment on the movie’s set and orchestrating a smear campaign amid the press tour. Baldoni has continued to vehemently deny the accusations, subsequently filing a lawsuit of his own against Lively, Reynolds, 48, and her publicist, Leslie Sloane claiming defamation and extortion. (Lively and Reynolds have denied Baldoni’s allegations and Sloane has asked for her name to be removed from the suit.)
Despite not making any direct comment on the legal drama during recent events, Lively did appear to allude to the situation while speaking at the TIME 100 Gala on April 25.
“I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum,” she said while celebrating her honor as one of the magazine’s most influential people. “What I will speak to, separately, is the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today.”
Lively introduced her mother, Willie Elaine McAlpin, to the crowd as a survivor of “the worst crime someone can commit against a woman.”
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“My mom never got justice from her work acquaintance who attempted to take her life when she was the mother of three young kids years before I was born,” the actress continued, recalling her mom hearing that a “similar circumstance” happened to another woman while listening to the radio.
“Because of hearing that woman speak about her experience, instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame, my mom is alive today,” Lively continued. “She was saved by a woman whose name she’ll never know.”
She added: “We don’t let our daughters know, but one day we break their hearts by letting them in on the secret that we kept from them as they pranced around in princess dresses, that they are not and will likely never be safe at work, at home, in a parking lot, in a medical office, online — in any space they inhabit physically, emotionally, professionally.”
