Blake Lively is celebrating being named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2025 even as she deals with a legal battle involving actor and director Justin Baldoni.
The 37-year-old actress was honored alongside big names like Donald Trump and Joe Rogan.
She marked the moment with a heartfelt message on Instagram, thanking TIME and sending love to her younger self.
“It’s an honor to be acknowledged on the @time 100 list for 2025,” she wrote.
She also gave a special shoutout to civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, who wrote the essay explaining why she was chosen.
“To be written about by the great @sherrilynifill is not something I take lightly,” Lively said, calling Ifill’s work powerful and inspiring.
“I don’t know the Blake Lively of the red carpet. Or the Met Gala,” Ifill wrote for TIME. “I never watched Gossip Girl.
The Blake Lively I know is a philanthropist and a student of our country’s most intractable problems.”
Ifill also wrote that Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, was just as devoted to social change, recalling when the couple “reached out in 2019 to make a contribution to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.”
“I had been getting a few of these calls, as our work fighting against voter suppression and police brutality was receiving national attention,” Ifill continued.
“I’m always curious about the kind of research famous people do before they make that cold call to offer their support. The ones I have remained in relationship with are those who, like Blake, really did their homework.”
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