On paper, it looks like Blake Lively has it all. She’s a popular and successful actor in her own right, and she’s also married to Ryan Reynolds. Given the current box office success of Deadpool & Wolverine, that means she’s effectively married to one of the most popular actors in the entire world.
However, as the old cliche goes, looks can be deceiving. Beneath the fame and the happy marriage, Lively has led a surprisingly sad life, complete with one wild tragedy after another. She may be stronger for having survived these tragedies, but at the time, they threatened to break both her heart and spirit.
Just what has Blake Lively faced, and how has she overcome these terrible struggles? Keep reading to find out!
Getting injured on set
Blake Lively has been in many roles, but she isn’t exactly known as an action star. Because of that, we didn’t originally think she faced much danger on various film sets. In reality, though, the star faced some really nasty injuries while making some arguably obscure films.
For example, while filming the horror movie The Shallows, there’s a scene where she cracks her face underwater and begins profusely bleeding. According to the actor, she really did crack her face while filming, and she simply decided to power through and complete the scene. Later, she admitted to being proud of herself for pulling it off even though she was in immense pain for a week afterward.
Years later, Lively faced even worse injuries while filming the 2020 thriller The Rhythm Section. While fighting Jude Law for a scene, she dislocated parts of her hand and severed a ligament, an injury so bad that it shut down filming for six months. She eventually healed, but only after two surgeries and some intense physical therapy!
Her career kept her out of college
The biggest reason that Blake Lively is now a household name is her success of the CW drama Gossip Girl. That show put her on the map and ultimately helped her become a bankable movie star. However, the success of the show had one big downside: it kept the talented actor from attending college.
Previously, Lively had wanted to attend Stanford University, and she had already deferred entry for a year to focus on her career. When she got the lead role in Gossip Girl, producers assured her she would still be able to study part-time. The show’s breakout success ensured she couldn’t actually take classes even as a part-time student, and to this day, she is resentful to CW executives for lying to her about this important matter.
Dealing with childhood bullies
With all due respect to her acting talents, one of the big reasons Blake Lively became such a popular performer is because she is so pretty. Because of that, we didn’t think this beautiful actor would face much difficulty during her childhood. In reality, she faced severe bullying, but not about her own looks…instead, the bullies focused on her choice of clothing.
You see, she attended a Los Angeles private school, and while the students generally came from wealthy families, they were mostly wearing normal children’s clothes. Lively’s mother, though, was a real fashionista who decided to buy adult clothes and alter them to fit her little girl. Lively herself really loved this, but she faced nonstop bullying over the clothes the entire time she was there.
Fighting to keep paparazzi await from her children
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are basically Hollywood royalty. These two are used to everyone trying to snap their photos wherever they go because this is part of the life they signed up for. However, their children never signed up for such a life, and Lively has had to spend a fair amount of energy and effort to keep the paparazzi away from her kids.
As reported by Stylist, Lively went off on this matter in a now-deleted Instagram post. “My children were being stalked by men all day. Jumping out. And then hiding. A stranger on the street got into words with them because it was so upsetting for her to see.”
Strangers weren’t always the real threat, either. On another occasion, Lively and Reynolds discovered that one of his closest friends was trying to sell private images of one of their babies!
Facing sexual harassment
It took far too long to happen, but Harvey Weinstein finally faced justice for the women that he sexually harassed, and interest in this kicked off the #MeToo movement where women came out with their own stories of harassment. Blake Lively contributed to this conversation by detailing how she was sexually harassed by her makeup artist, though she didn’t name the man in question.
She told the whole creepy story to the Los Angeles Times. “He was saying things inappropriately, insisting on putting my lipstick on with his finger,” she said. “I was sleeping one night on location and I woke up and he was filming me. I was clothed, but it was a very voyeuristic, terrifying thing to do.”
Fortunately, that awful incident is firmly in the past. But it’s even more proof that Lively had to overcome many tragic moments in order to achieve her current success.