NEWSBlake Lively Ridiculed for 'Using' Her Mother's Assault Story to Be 'Likable' During TIME100 Speech: 'Obvious PR Move'
Blake Lively was named one of 'TIME' magazine's 100 most influential people of 2025.
Blake Lively can't seem to catch a break.
The famed actress was once again belittled by social media users after she gave a speech at the TIME100 Gala about her mother, Willie Elaine McAlpin, being assaulted by a former colleague well before Lively was born.
The actress delivered a speech about her mom while at the TIME100 Gala on April 24.
Lively began her monologue by alluding to her messy legal battle with It Ends With Us director and costar Justin Baldoni, stating: "I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum."
Instead, the Gossip Girl actress wanted to share "the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today."
Blake Lively's mom welcomed three children from her first marriage prior to giving birth to the actress.
Lively then admitted she's been "influenced most" in life by her mom, 77, who was present at the annual event — which took place at Jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York City on Thursday, April 24 — alongside The Age of Adeline star's husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48.
Noting how her mother was the "survivor of the worst crime someone can commit against a woman," Lively revealed: "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."
Blake Lively's late father, Ernie Lively (née Brown) died in 2021.
McAlpin, who goes by Elaine Lively, was previously married to a man named Ronnie Lively — whom she shares kids Lori, 58, Jason, 57, and Robyn Lively, 53, with.
She later married her late husband, Ernie Lively (née Brown), who took her last name before welcoming Blake and her brother, Eric, 43.
Continuing with her story, Blake said her mother was only able to move forward from her assault after a woman on the radio opened up about a "similar circumstance" to the one she had been through.
"The woman painfully and graphically shared how she escaped. And because of hearing that woman speak about her experience instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame, my mom is alive today. She was saved by a woman whose name she'll never know," The Shallows actress stated, calling womanhood a "pact that privately we must show others how to survive, literally or spiritually."
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Blake mentioned how her and Ryan's daughters — James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5 — will one day be impacted by the difficulties that come with being a woman. (The couple also shares a 2-year-old son named Olin.)
"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," she detailed.
Blake concluded her speech by thanking "every man, including my sweet husband [Ryan], who are kind and good when no one is watching,"
"And to all the communities across the gender, age, political, geographical, and racial spectrum who fight every day just to be safe, I see you," the A Simple Favor star noted.
Blake Lively credited her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for being 'kind' when 'no one is watching.'
After her speech was shared to social media, critics were immediately outraged by Blake's message of choice.
"Oh so now she is using her mother’s [assault] to be likable??? But in August she didn’t mention DV when promoting a movie about DV. Interesting," one individual pointed out of Blake's It Ends With Us press tour last year.
A second hater wrote: "Blake Lively used her Time100 speech to reveal her mother is an [assault] survivor — an obvious PR move to align with [assault] 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?"
"Incredible how Blake Lively claims she’s not going to speak on her legal mess with Justin Baldoni — yet still manages to stain his name by casually tying him to a speech about [assault] and shame!" a third person declared.
