Blake Lively opens up on her plantation wedding backlash

Blake Lively addressed backlash over her and Ryan Reynolds’ choice of wedding venue during a deposition in her legal battle with Justin Baldoni.

The 38-year-old actress was deposed in New York City on July 30, 2025, regarding her allegations that her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Baldoni, launched a retaliatory smear campaign against her, as reported by People.

During the deposition, Baldoni’s attorney asked if negative publicity affected her.

“I’m used to it after this many years in the industry, but it’s not something I’ve had to deal with often,” Lively replied, per outlet.

Freedman then referenced the plantation wedding, asking if she faced criticism during the height of Black Lives Matter.

Lively said, “…I feel like that negative press was deserved. It’s a mistake we have publicly acknowledged and done a lot of work to reconcile for ourselves and others.”

She confirmed she takes “full accountability for that decision, as does my husband,” but said she was unsure if the backlash resurfaced as part of Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign.

Lively married Reynolds on September 9, 2012, at Boone Hall, a former slave plantation in South Carolina.

In August 2020, the couple apologized online and donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“We’re ashamed that in the past we’ve allowed ourselves to be uninformed about how deeply rooted systemic racism is,” they said, adding, “We want to use our privilege and platform to be an ally.”

Reynolds also spoke out in 2020, calling the choice of venue “something we’ll always be deeply and unreservedly sorry for.”