Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds will not be in attendance for the 2025 Met Gala, Us Weekly can confirm.
A source exclusively tells Us that the decision for Lively, 37, and Reynolds, 48, not to appear at the annual New York City fundraiser isn’t out of character.
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“She’s not a Kardashian that goes every year,” the source explains.
Lively and Reynolds last graced the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s iconic steps nearly three years ago. During the 2022 Met Gala, the couple served as cohosts for the event. They shared emcee duties alongside Regina King and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Lively and Reynolds have attended fashion’s biggest night together off and on for years. They made their debut at the Met in 2014. The twosome returned for the event three years later. In 2018, Lively attended solo.
The decision to skip this year’s gala comes amid Lively and Reynolds’ ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni. Lively and Baldoni costarred in It Ends With Us, which premiered last summer. However, their dispute didn’t officially go public until December 2024 when Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on set and orchestrating a smear campaign against her. Baldoni denied the allegations.
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The following month, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds and the actress’ publicist, accusing them of defamation. The couple have denied the accusations while the publicist requested to be removed from the lawsuit. Earlier this week, Reynolds and Lively both submitted motions to dismiss the lawsuit.
“The painful reality is that Ms. Lively is not alone in being sued for defamation after speaking up about being sexually harassed at work,” Lively’s spokesperson said in a statement to Us on Thursday, March 20. “That is entirely why California recently enacted AB 933, the Privileged Communications Incident of Sexual Assault, Harassment, or Discrimination Act, which codified California civil code section 47.1. While Ms. Lively has suffered greatly by speaking up and pursuing legal claims, it is important for other people to know that they have protections, and that there is a specific law that expressly protects them from being silenced or financially ruined by a defamation lawsuit because they had the courage to speak up.”
Baldonii’s lawyer Bryan Freedman addressed Lively’s motion to dismiss via a statement to Us.
“Ms. Lively’s recent motion to dismiss herself from the self-concocted disaster she initiated is one of the most abhorrent examples of abusing our legal system. Stringent rules are put into place to protect the innocent and allow individuals to rightfully defend themselves,” Freedman said. “Laws are not meant to be twisted and curated by privileged elites to fit their own personal agenda. As we said yesterday in response to Mr. Reynolds’ same cowardly measures, we will continue to hold Ms. Lively accountable for her actions of pure malice which include falsely accusing my clients of harassment and retaliation. Her fantastical claims will be swiftly debunked as discovery moves forward, easily disproved with actual, evidentiary proof.”
At this time, Lively and Baldoni’s trial is scheduled for next year.
