Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds may have looked like Hollywood royalty at the TIME100 Gala, but behind those glamorous smiles, a lip reader just uncovered a candid and revealing moment between the power couple.
The tender exchange came ahead of a major moment for Lively, who was honored as one of TIME’s “Most Influential People of 2025.”
But Blake Lively’s emotional speech also carried a deeper undercurrent, one tied to her ongoing legal battle with “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni.
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Blake Lively Got A Pep Talk From Ryan Reynolds Before Her TIME100 Speech

According to expert Nicola Hickling, who spoke to the Daily Mail, Reynolds leaned in close to Lively before she took the stage to deliver her honoree speech and whispered, “I should be there; I need to shine right now. You need to understand what I am saying to you right now.”
Lively gently placed her hand on her husband’s cheek and reportedly replied sweetly, “Kiss me one more time.”
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Blake Lively Gets Candid About Family Trauma And Her Own Battles During TIME100 Speech

In her address, Lively spoke about her “eternal optimist” mother, Willie Elain McAlpin, revealing that McAlpin was once the victim of “the worst crime someone can commit against a woman.”
She explained how her mother carried “raw and undeserved shame” for much of her life, and stressed the importance of speaking out, “If we name it, we change it.”
“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,” Lively revealed.
Without naming names, the “Gossip Girl” alum seemed to allude to her own battle, saying, “I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum. What I will speak to, separately, is the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today.”
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Justin Baldoni Countersues For $400M Amid Harassment Allegations

As The Blast previously reported, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign to destroy her reputation.
In response, Baldoni has denied the allegations and fired back with a $400 million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist Leslie Sloane, alleging defamation, extortion, and more.
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Blake Lively Blasts Justin Baldoni’s ‘Scorched Earth’ Lawsuit Tactics

In a fiery statement to Us Weekly, Lively’s lawyers claim Baldoni is trying to “tear down” the very laws designed to protect victims of harassment from being sued “into oblivion” by their alleged perpetrators.
“Mr. Baldoni has gone from monetizing a brand devoted to believing and supporting women to leading the charge to tear down the very law that protects women who come forward about sexual assault, harassment, and discrimination,” the statement read.
“California’s sexual harassment privilege, AB 933, was enacted to stop perpetrators of sexual harassment from abusing defamation lawsuits to sue their accusers into oblivion,” her legal team continued.
They added, “The chilling message scorched earth litigation sends to victims is stay silent or be destroyed.”
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