Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa has revealed the reason she could not retaliate during the now-viral interview with Blake Lively.
In 2016, Flaa sat down for a chat with Lively and Parker Posey to discuss the Woody Allen romantic comedy Café Society, co-starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.
During the conversation, Lively gave dismissive responses to Flaa's questions and spent most of the interview speaking to Posey after making a quick retort to the reporter's pregnancy comment.
Highlights
- Journalist Kjersti Flaa opened up about why she feared getting blacklisted by the entertainment industry after a “traumatizing” interview with Blake Lively in 2016.
- The reporter was accused of participating in Justin Baldoni’s alleged “smear campaign” against Lively after she reshared the interview in 2024.
- Flaa was among the content creators subpoenaed by Lively’s legal team in the Baldoni lawsuit, which was recently settled before going to trial.
Eight years later, Flaa reshared the interview on her YouTube channel, admitting that the experience nearly made her quit the job.
“This is horrible, mean girl behavior,” one user said about Lively’s actions during the interview.
Kjersti Flaa feared she’d be blacklisted after “traumatizing” Blake Lively interview
Image credits: Michael Buckner/Penske Media/Getty Images
Flaa started the 2016 interview by congratulating Blake Lively on her “little bump,” to which the Gossip Girl actress answered, “Congrats on your little bump,” even though Flaa was not pregnant. Lively was expecting her second child with Ryan Reynolds, Inez, and had already made the news public.
In response to Flaa’s first question about the movie’s wardrobe, Lively said, “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.”
Image credits: Kjersti Flaa/YouTube
For the rest of the conversation, which lasted a little more than four minutes, Lively directed most of her answers to Posey and barely interacted with Flaa.
“It was a really traumatizing experience,” Flaa admitted in a May 2026 interview with Page Six, saying that she was “frustrated, and angry, and upset” and “in shock” over Lively’s treatment. “I was just sitting there. At first, I was like, ‘Wow, this is really uncomfortable.’”
Image credits: Kjersti Flaa/YouTube
Despite Lively’s attitude, Flaa was forced to “take the high road” to protect her career, even though it was “the most uncomfortable interview situation” she had ever faced.
“So when I was sitting there, I couldn’t react to what they were doing to me in a sense of 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,” she explained.
“You know, she has a publicist, and then they talk, and then they blacklist you. That’s how it works, right?”
“A journalist who wants to continue doing these kinds of interviews, you just have to, you know, accept these terms,” she concluded.
Kjersti Flaa was accused of participating in a “smear campaign” against Blake Lively
Kjersti Flaa reshared the 2016 interview on her YouTube channel in August 2024, a day after Blake Lively’s controversial Colleen Hoover adaptation, It Ends With Us, hit the theaters.
“Is it not OK to congratulate someone on their pregnancy or to ask another woman about costumes she is wearing in a film?” she wrote in the description of the video, which she titled, The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.
Image credits: Netflix
The drama between Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni had already plagued their movie during its promotion, with the two leads refusing to appear on red carpets together.
The timing of Flaa’s repost added fuel to the fire as netizens ripped into Lively for her “rude” and “embarrassing” behavior.
Image credits: kjersti_flaa/Instagram
However, allegations quickly surfaced against Flaa. First, she was blamed for instigating the situation in the interview.
“You're a female journalist in Hollywood interviewing a working mom, and you can't come up with anything better to kick off the interview with than 'Congrats on your little bump?' Of course, Blake got annoyed,” a source told People magazine in August 2024.
“It's truly such a rude statement… If you feel the need to acknowledge that she's pregnant, at least do it respectfully.”
Next, she was dragged online for allegedly teaming up with Baldoni to take down Lively in exchange for money amid reports of a nixed SNL campaign and a subpar Blake Brown Beauty launch for the actress.
Blake Lively subpoenaed Kjersti Flaa in Justin Baldoni lawsuit
Image credits: XNY/Star Max/GC Images
Image credits: MEGA/GC Images
Flaa uploaded a video on her YouTube channel, denying any personal or PR link with either actor, after Lively sued Baldoni in December 2024, accusing him of s*xual harassment and attempting to “destroy her reputation.”
In mid-2025, Lively’s lawyers started subpoenaing individual creators who had spoken out against the actress amid the legal drama. Among those who got the notice were Andy Signore, Perez Hilton, Candace Owens, and Kjersti Flaa herself.
Image credits: kjersti_flaa/Instagram
Lively’s legal team claimed that the subpoenas were evidence gathering to filter out which posts were part of Baldoni’s “smear campaign” and not any accusation of wrongdoing, according to a July 2025 Variety report.
“They’re just offering their opinions like anyone else has the right to do,” argued Flaa’s attorney, John Genga, the outlet said. “We think it’s invasive. It’s designed to intimidate these people, many of whom don’t have the means to fight it.”
On May 4, 2026, Baldoni and Lively agreed to settle just two weeks before the lawsuit was set to go to trial in New York. The actress attended the 2026 Met Gala hours later in an archival Atelier Versace number.
"Awkward." Netizens shared their thoughts on Flaa's Lively interview
