Blake Lively left a journalist “traumatized” after their uncomfortable interview in which the “Gossip Girl” alum clapped back about her body.
Entertainment reporter Kjersti Flaa recalled the now-viral 2016 sit-down with Lively in an exclusive interview with Page Six Monday.
“It was a really traumatizing experience,” Flaa said.
Flaa was interviewing Lively, who was pregnant at the time, and her “Café Society” co-star Parker Posey. When Flaa congratulated Lively on her “little bump,” the actress awkwardly hit back, “Congrats on your little bump.”
When Flaa tried to change the subject and ask about their wardrobe in the movie, Lively fired back, “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.” Lively then proceeded to have a full conversation with Posey, effectively ignoring Flaa, who was supposed to be leading the interview.
“I was just sitting there like, ‘Oh.’… I didn’t really understand all that. And then when I asked the next question about the costumes, [they] turned to each other and just ignore me. That’s when I started, you know, feeling like, ‘Oh my God. They’re actually doing this.’”
Flaa admitted that she was “in shock” over how she was being treated by Lively.
“I was just sitting there. At first I was like, wow, this is really uncomfortable,” she said.
When she started to feel like Lively and Posey were ganging up on her, Flaa said she knew she couldn’t react because she wanted to protect her career.
“As a journalist, you always have to take the high road, you know?” she said. “So when I was sitting there, I couldn’t react to what they were doing to me in a sense of like leaving or talking back to them or doing anything like that, because I knew if I did, then I would never get opportunities like that again.”
Flaa said she was fearful of being blacklisted from any future interview opportunities.
“Not that I necessarily wanted to interview Blake again, but, you know, she has a publicist, and then they talk and then they blacklist you. That’s how it works, right?” she claimed. “So I just sat there and then I started getting more and more frustrated and angry and upset and all these emotions because I was like, I couldn’t believe they were actually doing it. I was just in shock.”
Flaa pointed out the “power dynamic” at play while interviewing an A-lister like Lively.
“A journalist who wants to continue doing these kind of interviews, you just have to, you know, accept these terms,” she said, adding elsewhere, “Everyone who’s done these kind of interviews and been in those kind of situations, knows how much pressure you have in a situation like that.”
Flaa was one of the people subpoenaed by Lively in her legal battle against her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni. Lively sued Baldoni in December 2024 for sexual harassment and retaliation, among other claims. The “Jane the Virgin” star responded with a $400 million countersuit, accusing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of defamation, extortion and orchestrating a smear campaign to destroy his reputation. Both sides denied wrongdoing.
Baldoni’s countersuit was tossed in June 2025 and last month, the judge threw out 10 of Lively’s 13 allegations against him, including sexual harassment, conspiracy and defamation.
Last Monday, Baldoni and Lively announced that they had reached a settlement, with neither party winning any money.
While Flaa told Page Six that she wasn’t sure what she would have said on the stand if there had been a trial, she noted, “I was kind of looking forward to just poke holes in everything.”
For Flaa, it would have gone a long way if Lively had just reached out with an apology.
“Blake had every opportunity to right this wrong because she clearly knew very well that this interview existed and got out there and nothing happened,” Flaa said, wondering where they would be today if she had just “reached out” to make amends.
Lively and Posey’s reps did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
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