Blake Lively And Ryan Reynolds' Pre-Speech Pep Talk Decoded By Lip Reader

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.

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.”

Reynolds obliged, giving his wife a quick smooch before she headed up to address the star-studded crowd.

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."

Her speech has since sparked backlash from viewers who claim she is using her mom's story to be "likeable."

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.

Meanwhile, Lively is hitting back hard, accusing him of launching “scorched earth” tactics to silence her amid their messy legal war.

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."

According to Daily Mail, Lively actually filed a “super shady” lawsuit months before publicly accusing Baldoni.

In a secret September 2024 filing, she reportedly attempted to subpoena incriminating text messages and documents from Baldoni’s now-former PR team, targeting ex-publicist Stephanie Jones and her firm, Jonesworks.

The subpoena allegedly sought all communications involving Baldoni, Lively, and Reynolds, suggesting that Lively was gathering ammunition long before the public knew there was bad blood brewing between the co-stars.

The high-stakes trial is currently set for March 2026.

Still, despite the legal storm cloud looming over them, Lively made sure to thank “every man” in her life during her speech, especially her “sweet husband,” Reynolds, for being “kind and good when no one is watching.”