Times Blake Lively's Rumored Diva Behavior Came Back To Bite Her

Blake Lively's reputation has taken a hit since the "It Ends with Us" press tour imploded in the summer of 2024. While Lively was known for years as a talented actor and entrepreneur, along with being the wife of "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds, she's since become a divisive figure. The drama revolves around Lively's sexual harassment lawsuit launched against her "It Ends with Us" co-star and director, Justin Baldoni. Initially, her claims were met with widespread support, but Baldoni's $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times, which published an expose claiming he had acted inappropriately toward Lively on set, and his $400 million lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, has seen tides shift greatly in his favor, with many claiming Lively exhibited manipulative and diva behavior.

Lively claimed in her filing that Baldoni retaliated against her on-set HR concerns with a smear campaign meant to make people turn against her. However, Baldoni's lawsuit included hundreds of pages of text messages and correspondence which have, in the court of public opinion, provided context to Lively's claims that don't fare in her favor. One text even reportedly led to Taylor Swift cutting Lively off in a brutal PR blow. 

While Baldoni's legal response, along with the out-of-court information he's released on a website, has helped him drum up more and more public favor, Lively's reputation continues to suffer. As such, social media has started digging up her most unflattering moments, particularly those instances when she displayed diva behavior. And while none of the moments can prove which party has the moral high ground, Nicki Swift spoke exclusively to a body language expert who offered some insight into what was possibly going through the actor's mind on one of the occasions when Lively got called out by the internet for being rude.

During the "It Ends with Us" press tour, Blake Lively, who, along with Ryan Reynolds, has been branded as shady, was heavily criticized for the light-hearted way she promoted the film, which revolved around domestic violence. One regularly cited example is a clip of Lively telling fans to "grab your friends, wear your florals" to see the film in reference to her character Lily Bloom's name and flower shop. In her lawsuit, she claimed that the negative fan response to her interviews was artificially manufactured by Justin Baldoni and his PR team. However, various insiders, including a journalist named Kjersti Flaa, have chimed in to suggest that, in their opinion, Lively was the problem.

On August 10, 2024, Flaa uploaded an old interview of Lively and actor Parker Posey promoting their film, "Café Society." Flaa opened up the exchange by saying to Lively, "Congrats on your little bump," in reference to her pregnancy. In response, Lively remarked, "Congrats on your little bump." She spent the next part of the interview avoiding speaking directly to Flaa while she engaged enthusiastically with Posey. 

Lively also condemned the reporter's next line of questioning, which involved their wardrobes on set. "Everyone wants to ask about the clothes, but I wonder if they'd ask the men about the clothes," she started before describing how great the male actors' wardrobe was. "[Jesse Eisenberg's] wardrobe was beautiful," she continued. "Corey's wardrobe was gorgeous." Flaa said this interview "made me want to quit my job." It's also one of the examples of Lively's shady moments that fans have honed in on the most.

Nicki Swift spoke with Celebrity Love Coach and Body Language expert Nicole Moore to get her insight into Blake Lively's viral reaction to Kjersti Flaa's interview. In her expert opinion, the star's response stemmed from a place of deep offense. "From this clip, it appears as if Blake may have thought the journalist was rude for speaking about her pregnancy as a 'little bump,' and that's why she responded by throwing the comment back to the journalist," said Moore. "Blake didn't smile as if she were receiving a positive message but instead she paused, moved her eyes from side to side, and then pointed to the journalist while saying 'congrats on your little bump' as if she were throwing the comment back to her because she didn't want to take it." And while Moore noted that Lively's response was "ungracious and rude," it ultimately stemmed from her perceived slight.

Moore also noted Flaa's body language during her intense exchange with Lively. "The journalist's body language definitely changes from open to more reserved after Blake turned her 'little bump' remark back on her," she shared. "At the start of the interview, the journalist was smiling wide with her teeth showing as she asked Blake about her bump but she pulled her body backward immediately after Blake's remark, indicating that she was hurt by it." 

Flaa also started to wring her hands, suggesting she was "uncomfortable and wrestling with her emotions at that moment," continued Moore, adding, "It definitely appears as if the journalist was embarrassed when Blake did not receive her comment well and it's possible that this caused her to review Blake as being rude."

Although this gripe isn't the focal point of Justin Baldoni's lawsuit against Blake Lively, he claims within his filings that she took control of the pre- and post- production of "It Ends with Us" by becoming increasingly demanding about contributing her creative input. "Concerned about Lively's tendency to overstep and take control, Baldoni consulted his producing team on how best to respond [to Lively's request to see the film's dallies]," reads page 39 of Baldoni's timeline. "The team unanimously advised against granting her access, fearing she might 'start to edit the movie and dictate which takes to use' — a concern that ultimately proved accurate."

In February 2025, Forbes republished a 2022 interview of Lively admitting to needing "authorship" of her creative projects. "I would show up on a set. I knew that they just wanted me show up and look cut and stand on a little pink sticker where I'm supposed to go and say what I'm supposed to say," she said. "But I also knew that wasn't fulfilling to me," she continued. "That I wanted to be a part of the storytelling, that I wanted to be a part of the narrative, whether that be in the writing, in the costume design, in creating the character." 

Sometimes, directors, producers, and writers were on board with Lively contributing to the other departments. But that wasn't always her experience. "Sometimes, I would have people who really resented that because they were like, 'We just hired you to be an actor,'" she continued. Lively also revealed that she took some acting jobs under the pretense of just contributing her acting talent, although she had ulterior motives. "I wouldn't reveal that I actually needed to have authorship in order to feel fulfilled."

Years before Blake Lively shot "It Ends with Us," she starred in "Gossip Girl," which ran from 2007 until 2012. Penn Badgley was also a prominent figure on the show, starring in all 121 episodes of the series. And though he and Lively would eventually start dating in real life, she wasn't initially a fan of his inclusion in the cast, so she took matters into her own hands. "At first I was so upset that they hired him, I actually poisoned the whole cast against him," Lively confessed during an interview with Glamour UK (via People). However, her castmates weren't swayed, and she eventually came around, too. "But then they noticed that he wasn't a jerk and was actually a really nice, charming person," she continued, adding, "Almost immediately I realized that too, but it took me about a week to admit it."

Fans across social media took particular offense to Lively's casual recounting of her on-set treatment of Badgley. "She is just the biggest mean girl she needs to be canceled," commented one Reddit user. A second person commented, "I am just surprised she has been so public about it... this is not a secret, at all. How has this gone on for 20+ years?!" Fans were just as outraged over Lively's admission on X, formerly known as Twitter. "And here we are, Blake Lively, the 37 years old 'woman' who still can't (more likely WON'T) grow pass her 'high school mean girl' phase," one critic wrote. "Only that if you're still in your teens, we can dismiss it as mean girl behaviour, but if you're a grown adult, that's just toxic behaviour."

Blake Lively also promoted "It Ends with Us" with another co-star, Brandon Sklenar, on "Jake's Takes." Unfortunately, the interview did little to propel domestic violence awareness forward, instead positioning Lively as a little out of touch and/or flippant about the topic. During the interview, the mom-of-four was asked whether domestic abuse victims could seek her out for advice or support, and her answer went viral. "Are they like asking for like my address or my phone number, or like my location share? Oh, I could just location share you and we could ..." she said. "I'm a Virgo, so I'm like, are we talking logistics? Are we talking emotionally?" Although the actor pivoted to talking about the prevalence of domestic violence in the average person's life — even those who may just know someone who's gone through it — the internet didn't take kindly to her initial comments.

On TikTok, where the clip has repeatedly been re-posted, many fans have expressed disappointment, as they felt Lively was being dismissive of victims of domestic violence. "The way she is sitting immediately indicates how much she respects this particular interview," wrote one fan in the comments, referencing how Lively had her feet up on the couch, heels and all. "That posture is saying — I could careless about this interview," agreed another user. 

Meanwhile, a third fan commented that Lively was slyly telling fans to not approach her about the subject matter in person. "That's her way of saying don't approach me and tell me your story," they wrote. Finally, another suggested she didn't care about the serious nature of the film and was just in it for a paycheck. "I don't actually care I'm just here for the money," they commented.