Nearly a decade after her infamous interview with Gossip Girl alum, Blake Lively, entertainment reporter Kjersti Flaa opens up about the “traumatizing” incident.
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During a recent sit-down with Page Six, Flaa recalled the 2016 interview with Lively, saying, “It was a really traumatizing experience.”
The interview with Lively and Café Society co-star Parker Posey seemingly took an unexpected turn when Flaa congratulated Lively on her “little bump.”At the time, the actress was pregnant with her and Ryan Reynolds’ second child.
“Congrats on your little bump,” Lively fired back.
Although Flaa quickly tried to change the subject, asking about the actresses’ Café Society wardrobe, Lively said, “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.”
Going out of her way to ignore Flaa, Lively proceeded to have a full-on conversation with her co-star instead.
“I was just sitting there like, ‘Oh.’… I didn’t really understand all that,” Flaa said while reflecting on the interview. “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 went on to admit she was “in shock” over how Lively treated her throughout the interview. “I was just sitting there. At first, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really uncomfortable.”
The Reporter Said She Felt Like Lively and Her Co-Star Ganged Up On Her During the Interview
As the interview continued, Flaa said it felt as though Lively and Posey were ganging up on her. However, she couldn’t point that out for fear her comment would impact her career.
“As a journalist, you always have to take the high road, you know?” the reporter continued. “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.”
Noting she doesn’t necessarily want to interview Lively again, Flaa said the actress’s publicist more likely blacklisted her following the interview.
“That’s how it works, right?” she continued. “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 was among those whom Lively subpoenaed during her legal battle against her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni. The actress filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation.
The interview with Flaa and Lively resurfaced during the legal battle.
“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 added.