Blake Lively honored her mother, Willie Elain McAlpin, at the Time100 Gala Thursday evening with a personal five-minute speech that revealed that McAlpin had survived an attack on her life before Lively was born.
“My life was influenced most by my mother, Willie Elain McAlpin, who’s here with me tonight, an eternal optimist who’s always leaving me messages, hoopin’ and hollerin’ sayin’, ‘Life’s just a bowl of cherries,’” Lively said, gesturing toward her mother and introducing her to the crowd. Shortly after, Lively said, “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 has always credited her beating heart today with the story she heard from another woman in a similar circumstance, speaking on the radio as my mom drove home one day.”
“The woman painfully and graphically shared how she escaped, and because of hearing that woman speak to her experience instead of shutting down in fear and unfair shame, my mom is alive today,” Lively continued. “She was saved by a woman whose name she’ll never know. I am alive, and standing with you all here today, being honored, because of a woman whose name I’ll never know. I am here, my mom is here, because that woman not only survived, but she told others how.”
Lively attended the Time100 Gala with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Thursday evening in New York. Lively was one of the nominees of this year’s edition of Time100.
The event did not mark Lively’s first public speaking engagement since she sued her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni. (Lively appeared onstage with Anna Kendrick and Paul Feig at the SXSW premiere of “Another Simple Favor” in March). But the Time100 speech marked somewhat of a first public acknowledgement of the ongoing legal battle, with Lively saying “I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum.”
“I know the superpower of female triumph though. I have touched it, shaken hands with it. I’m looking at it in this room here right now. These are the happy endings we must see as women and girls. We can make it to the end alive, physically or emotionally, and we will and we do, and we thrive. Even when it doesn’t feel possible. Even when we are in sharp pain,” Lively finished in her speech. “Never underestimate a woman’s ability to endure pain. Life’s just a bowl of cherries.”
Lively has sued Baldoni, his publicists and the producers behind “It Ends With Us,” alleging that they launched a smear campaign against her after she complained about sexual harassment on set. Baldoni, who directed and co-stars with Lively in the film, then sued her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, arguing that they sought to destroy his career with false allegations.
Baldoni alleged in his complaint that Lively repeatedly used threats of false allegations in order to hijack the film. The complaint also accused Lively and her team of working for months with the New York Times to publicize her accusations. The newspaper is also named as a defendant.
Time published a complete transcript of Lively’s speech that can be read on the publication’s website.
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