Blake Lively admitted to trying to control the narrative around former co-stars years before her explosive legal tussle with Justin Baldoni.
The actress, 37, confessed she ‘poisoned’ the cast of Gossip Girl against Penn Badgley, 38, in a resurfaced interview from 2009.
Lively, who played socialite Serena Van Der Woodsen, the love interest of Badgley’s Dan Humphrey, said she was ‘so upset’ at his casting that she set about turning everyone against him.
‘At first I was so upset that they hired him,’ she told Glamour magazine. ‘I actually poisoned the whole cast against him.
‘But then they noticed that he wasn’t a jerk and was actually a really nice, charming person.’
She added: ‘Almost immediately I realised that too, but it took me about a week to admit it.’
Blake Lively admitted to trying to control the narrative around former co-stars years before her explosive legal tussle with Justin Baldoni
The actress, 37, confessed she ‘poisoned’ the cast of Gossip Girl against Penn Badgley, 38, in a resurfaced interview with Glamour from 2009
‘At first I was so upset that they hired him,’ she told the magazine. ‘I actually poisoned the whole cast against him’ (pictured on the cover)
She went on to insist that there was no animosity between the cast on set, claiming: ‘We hang out after filming. We actually look forward to spending time together outside of work.’
Badgley played Lively’s on-screen boyfriend on the hit show and the pair dated for three years in real life from 2007.
They split in 2010 but kept it secret from show bosses because they reportedly didn’t want their personal drama to interfere with the show.
Badgley and his Gossip Girl co-stars have remained silent in the wake of Lively’s legal spat, renewing rumours of tensions behind the scenes of the hit CW series which ran for six seasons from 2007 until 2012.
There were reports at the time that Lively and Leighton Meester, who played Blair Waldorf, were not friends, something executive producer Joshua Safran and a representative for Lively appeared to confirm.
Neither Meester or Badgley follow Lively on Instagram.
Interestingly Badgley and Baldoni have featured on podcasts together in the past and follow each other on social media.
In November 2021, the pair were spotted out and about in New York and posed for a pH๏τo with a fan who shared it to X, which Baldoni later reposted tagging Badgley and saying: ‘Looks like we were spotted by #GossipGirl.’
She continued: ‘But then they noticed that he wasn’t a jerk and was actually a really nice, charming person’ (pictured with the cast of Gossip Girl)
Lively’s interview is the latest to resurface in the wake of her bitter legal saga with Baldoni, 41, who she accused of Sєxual harᴀssment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her
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Another crucial connection between the pair is their Baha’i faith – a niche religion found by an Iranian prophet in the 19th century, which has spread throughout the world and now counts more than eight million members.
Lively’s Glamour interview is the latest to resurface in the wake of her bitter legal saga with Baldoni, who she accused of Sєxual harᴀssment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her after they worked together on Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us. He has denied the claims.
Fans pulled into question her behaviour during the promotional tour of the film last August which saw her plug her alcohol line and haircare brand instead of discussing the film’s theme of domestic violence.
Among old interviews being dug up was one with Magnus Sundholm, an LA-based writer for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, who was left shocked and uncomfortable when Lively ‘ambushed’ him while promoting A Simple Favor in 2018.
Sundholm accused her of hijacking the interview to plug her husband Ryan Reynolds’ alcohol line, which he described as a ‘sneaky, cheap and disrespectful’ move.
The deeply awkward exchange resurfaced months after footage of Lively snapping at another reporter, and Sundholm’s girlfriend, Kjersti Flaa, went viral.
Lively appeared to take aim at Flaa after she congratulated the actress on her pregnancy.
‘First of all, congrats on your little bump,’ she said.
Among old interviews being dug up was one with Magnus Sundholm, an LA-based writer for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, and another with his partner Kjersti Flaa
Baldoni is countersuing both Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, for $400million, claiming the Hollywood couple conspired to trash his reputation
Lively looked annoyed and sH๏τ back: ‘Congrats on your little bump.’ Flaa was not pregnant.
The journalist posted the video on YouTube in August with the тιтle ‘The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.’
Speaking to DailyMail.com in December, she said: ‘It’s time that people behaving badly in Hollywood, or anywhere else for that matter, get called out for it.’
In an interview at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit in 2022 she discussed riling producers with demands to take creative control of her projects.
Footage obtained by TMZ shows the star detailing how she would attend first meetings primarily as an actor before revealing she wanted more ‘authorship’ of the project.
Lively is currently locked in a bitter battle with Baldoni whom she accused of Sєxual harᴀssment in a bombshell lawsuit last year.
The New York Times later released a story based on Lively’s legal filing that accused him and his publicists of orchestrating a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni is now countersuing both Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, for $400million, claiming the Hollywood couple conspired to trash his reputation.
He also accused her of using her friend Taylor Swift to intimidate him at a meeting with Reynolds about edits she had made to a rooftop scene in their film.
Earlier this month, he published a website that his legal team alleged had all of the ‘receipts’ for his and Lively’s court battle.
All parties have vehemently denied the allegations.
A trial is scheduled for March 9, 2026.
