Robyn Lively is “proud” of sister Blake Lively’s TIME100 gala speech.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at iHeartRadio’s 102.7 KIIS FM Wango Tango in California on Saturday, May 10, the actress, 53, spoke about her reaction to her sister’s event speech, during which Blake, 37, alluded to her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni while revealing her mom once faced a similar situation.
“[I’m] very proud. Just so you know, very proud,” Robyn said, as husband and fellow actor Bart Johnson reiterated that the couple was “super proud” of Blake. (The pair attended the musical outing alongside their daughter Kate.)
“That’s a tough thing to navigate, so we’re proud,” Johnson, 54, added, as Robyn reiterated, “To say we’re proud is an understatement.”
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Robyn Lively attends iHeartRadio’s 102.7 KIIS FM Wango Tango at Huntington City Beach
Robyn and Johnson’s message of support comes weeks after Blake made her speech at Jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York City on April 24, after being named one of TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people.
“I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum,” she continued, instead speaking about “the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today” and saluting her mother Willie Elaine McAlpin, who she called the person her life was “influenced most” by.
“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 said, adding that her mom credited a woman who spoke of a “similar circumstance” on the radio with saving her life.
“The woman painfully and graphically shared how she escaped. And because of hearing that woman speak about 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,” Blake stated.
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Blake’s “last two years” remark alluded to her ongoing legal battle with Baldoni — her It Ends with Us costar and director.
She initially sued Baldoni, 41, in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign.
The actor, who denied the allegations, then countersued Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds, publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s PR firm Vision PR, Inc., for $400 million, over allegations including civil extortion and defamation.
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Blake Lively speaks during the 2025 TIME100 Gala.
Elsewhere during her TIME speech, the Another Simple Favor star called it “surreal and deeply significant” to be an honoree “in a time where the most valuable currency seems to be anger, it feels like an act of defiance to commune and celebrate all the good that is alive in the world.”
Blake then called influence a “significant responsibility,” sharing that “who and what we stand up for, and what we stay silent about, what we monetize versus what we actually live, matters.”
A trial has been scheduled for March 2026. Baldoni will take the stand, his attorney, Bryan Freedman, confirmed. Mike Gottlieb, Lively’s attorney, also confirmed to PEOPLE earlier this week that the actress is expected to take the stand as well.
“Yes,” Gottlieb said when asked if Lively will testify. “The ultimate moment for a plaintiff’s story to be told is at trial. We expect that to be the case here [with Lively]. So we would, of course, expect her to be a witness at her trial. Of course she’s going to testify.”
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