[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Blake Lively‘s TIME100 speech royally backfired!
On Thursday, the actress gave an emotional speech during Time‘s 100 Most Influential People of 2025 gala, where she was honored for her activism work — you know, a donation she made YEARS ago after she was called out for getting married on a planation. Rather than talk about her It Ends With Us sexual harassment lawsuit, she revealed her mother survived a near-death assault at the hands of a colleague before Blake was born. Blake said her mom survived after having heard a stranger’s story of escaping a similar experience, and she now wanted to use her platform for highlight those who bravely speak up against violence. You can listen to the speech (below):
Blake Lively pays tribute to her mother, who survived an attack on her life before Lively was born, in a speech at the Time100 Gala in New York. https://t.co/u2TA6tyURX pic.twitter.com/xkC2eDo5Hn
— Variety (@Variety) April 25, 2025
Despite the powerful message, viewers were NOT pleased with the speech — or the timing of it!
Related: Taylor Swift ‘Does Not Want To Be Involved’ In It Ends With Us Legal Battle!
Slamming the talk as an “obvious PR move,” viewers blasted the actress across social media!
Mostly, people were upset to see the A Simple Favor alum finally start to speak about survivors — long after she promoted her domestic violence film. As Perezcious readers know, during the promo tour, Blake took hits for brushing over the serious topic of the film and instead promoting her hair and beverage brands while leaning into the floral aesthetic of her character. She made the whole thing very light-hearted — and pretty much refused to talk about victims of abuse!
So, all of the sudden seeing her praise women speaking up against injustice rubbed people the wrong way! (We should note, however, that it was actually Sony who urged Blake and other performers not to highlight the sensitive nature of the romance movie during promotion — though Justin Baldoni ignored those alleged guidelines.)
On X (Twitter), users slammed the star:
“Blake Lively used her Time100 speech to reveal her mother is a rape survivor — an obvious PR move to align with SA victims. Yet, with that personal connection to trauma, she still couldn’t figure out how to market a movie about DV? What’s next for her, a Peace Nobel Prize?”
“cue the tragic mother PR.. she is so obvious… she has no shame..”
“She is saying that now? When she totally glossed over the message of a movie about DV? Something is up & yes, it’s a PR move linked to her legal case.”
“Question: why didn’t she talk about this during the promotion of It Ends With Us, a movie about domestic violence, instead of hawking her liquor and hair care? I don’t believe a damn thing she says and this is a slap in the face to real victims. The ones who don’t get fancy awards for doing absolutely nothing nor get to walk fancy red carpets all dolled up and fawned over in the press. These celebrities have absolutely NO SHAME.”
“Oh so now she is using her Mother’s SA to be likable??? But in August she didn’t mention DV when promoting a movie about DV. Interesting…”
“Why wasn’t she having these speeches when she was promoting the movie?? Instead she was promoting alcohol and naming drinks after characters, don’t understand why they keep giving her a platform”
On TikTok, content creator Stephanie Tleiji also called out Blake, saying:
“Really funny that in August when you were promoting It Ends With Us, you totally forgot your mom was a survivor but tonight, you remembered. Interesting. […] For her to say, like, I am a woman who has a voice today, but that voice she is using with false claims of SH is so damaging to victims but she continues to just keep going. This is just another failed attempt from her team. Like, her team must hate her or she is just the biggest narcissist.”
Yeesh!
See her full critique HERE. Others commented:
“But when she had the chance to do this while promoting a movie about DV she chose to keep quiet and instead ask everyone to bring their friends and florals!”
“Again, where was this energy during the premier of IEWU. Unbelievable how low she’ll go”
“HOW is she gaslighting the world so hard”
“This woman constantly disappoints me”
“I CANNOT.”
Oof…
Do U agree with the backlash, Perezcious readers?? Tell us in the comments!
For more information on violence against women, go to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/resources-for-survivors. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
Related Posts
