Blake Lively Hints at It Ends With Us Legal Drama in TIME100 Speech

After seemingly referencing the scandal around It Ends With Us—which began production in May 2023—the Betty Buzz founder went on to praise her mother Willie Elain McAlpin who survived what Blake called "the worst crime someone can commit against a woman."

"I’ve watched her conceal her raw and undeserved shame my entire life, so as her daughter, being asked to share this today, is monumental. If we name it, we change it," the Gossip Girl star—who was accompanied to the gala by her mother and Ryan—explained. "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."

Blake went on to explain that her mom was inspired to take charge of her own life after hearing another woman's similar story to her own on the radio.

"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 actress shared. "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."

"She was saved by a woman whose name she’ll never know," she continued. "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."

Blake ended her speech by celebrating the other strong women at the star-studded gala.

"I know the superpower of female triumph," she said. "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. Never underestimate a woman’s ability to endure pain."

Keep reading for more from the 2025 TIME100 Gala...