Drama erupted at the star-studded TIME100 gala in New York City on Thursday night, as Megyn Kelly claimed Blake Lively shouldn’t have been invited.
The actress was included in the magazine’s Most Influential People list earlier this year, which was met with some criticism.
Amid her ongoing legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, the outspoken journalist slammed Blake’s inclusion in the list during a press interview on the red carpet.
Blake Lively looking stunning at the Time 100 Gala — she is being honored as one of the year’s 100 most influential people by the magazine pic.twitter.com/zP9xeakxAo
— la bella vita (@drugproblem) April 25, 2025
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Megyn said: “It’s a ridiculous joke. She shouldn’t be here.
“I think [Blake has] launched a fake Me Too allegation against [Justin], and she’s lived to regret doing it, because virtually every allegation she has made has fallen apart,” she alleged.
“So for her to be honoured for doing that, to try to ruin a man over absolutely nothing, is a scandal.”
Blake has been embroiled in a nasty legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni since she filed a lawsuit against him in December 2024.
The actress alleged that he sexually harassed her on set, and schemed a smear campaign against her – all of which he denied.
In response, Justin filed a $400 million lawsuit in January, alleging Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds were plotting to harm his reputation.
All parties involved dispute the accusations made against them, and an intensive trial date is set for March 29, 2026.
The subject is familiar for Megyn, as she famously accused her former Fox News boss Roger Ailes of sexual harassment in 2016.
Her experience was later dramatised in the 2019 film Bombshell, in which she was played by Charlize Theron.
Speaking to reporters, Megyn joked that she hoped to get a selfie with Blake and Meghan Markle “in the distance” because they had provided her with “so many hours of content”.
She also said she wouldn’t be making an effort to avoid Blake or her husband Ryan Reynolds, who attended the event with her, but she had a “feeling she’s going to be avoid me.”
Blake was one of the speakers inside the gala, and in her speech she appeared to reference her ongoing legal battle with Justin.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the 2025 Time100 Gala at Lincoln Center in New York City.
More #GettyVideo #TIME100 #BlakeLively #RyanReynolds @TIME 🎥 Brian Craig 👉 https://t.co/QHclfnkuhR pic.twitter.com/yPRIQrdTjp
— Getty Images Entertainment (@GettyVIP) April 25, 2025
The actress said it felt “surreal and deeply significant” for her to be honoured “in a time where the most valuable currency seems to be anger, it feels like an act of defiance to commune and celebrate all the good that is alive in the world”.
Blake stressed the “significant responsibility” of the power of influence, and how they choose to use it.
“Who and what we stand up for, and what we stay silent about, what we monetize versus what we actually live, matters.”
“I have so much to say about the last two years of my life,” she said, before declaring that the gala was “not the forum” for those thoughts.
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Instead, Blake paid a special tribute to her mother Elaine, who she said was a “survivor of the worst crime someone can commit against a woman.”
“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,” she said.
Blake explained that it was only when her mother heard a woman speaking on the radio who had gone through a similar situation that she found the strength to move on with her life.
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
“Because of hearing that woman speak about her experience instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame, my mom is alive today,” Blake shared.
“She was saved by a woman whose name she’ll never know.”
The mother-of-three ended her speech by thanking all men “who are kind and good when no one is watching”, including her “sweet husband” Ryan.
