This is just weird. I updated yesterday’s Blake Lively post with a link to this People Magazine cover. My guess is that Blake Lively confirmed to People Magazine that she had given birth and that was enough to get her the cover, but she didn’t have to give out any details about the birth or the baby. She didn’t even confirm that she had a girl, much less give People Magazine the name. And honestly, the “exclusive interview” she gave People sounds like a bunch of stuff a woman would say BEFORE she even gave birth. Some highlights from the cover story:
*Always a mom: Blake has “always felt like a mama… I’m always teasing my sisters’ kids that they are my own, and I’m always taking care of other people’s kids. Maybe because I didn’t grow up with little siblings, I’ve been making up for lost time.”
*It’s not a big deal: “I don’t feel like it’s a massive change. I’ve always wanted a big family, and I understand that feeling when you have your first kid of ‘Let’s really be present in this.'”
*She wants more babies, all the time, every year: “I do want to just enjoy this. But I also feel like my first child is going to be the oldest sibling to the next kid, and that may change with each and every year. You don’t just raise your kids, your kids also raise each other—oh my Lord, the things I learned from my brother Eric. He’s influenced my life so much. I’m looking forward to how one baby influences the other, and to my family as a whole, to every single chapter.”
*Her Preserve inspirations: “So much of the inspiration came from my mom and my dad and my siblings. All the things I feel like I’m good at are thanks to my family, and they’re things we’re now embracing at Preserve: cooking, decorating, artistry. Family is at the heart of everything I do.”
*Her mother: “I was raised by a woman who was eternally optimistic. Nearly every day my mom will leave me a voice-mail saying, ‘Life is a bowl of cherries,’ or singing songs. She came from humble beginnings, but if you told her she’d experienced hardship, she’d say, ‘I have not!’ she chose happiness and she taught me to do the same every day.”
*The happiest time: “This is the happiest time in my life, and I could say that every day. I often feel like, ‘I can’t believe I’m experiencing this.'”
So, what do you think? Did Blake actually speak to People after she gave birth? CB pointed out that most new moms feel exhausted in the first weeks after giving birth, which makes Blake’s sunshine & roses routine a little bit unusual. I also think it’s weird that Blake makes it sound like she’s going to go full-on Duggar and have a baby every year. Yeah… I doubt it. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has another baby, but the “I want so many babies, I’m hungry for more babies!” thing grates on my last nerve.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, cover courtesy of People.
I wonder how fast that nurse that tweeted her about caring for her ‘baby girl Violet’ got fired
That’s still mind blowing.
Famous or not no one deserves that
Same. I almost want the consequences made public (if real) to deter anyone else who thinks they can do that.
Ooooooh so that’s what happened? I haven’t seen the actual Tweet so I had just assumed Blake herself had Tweeted about the baby. Pretty crummy on the nurse’s part to do something like that – I am guessing the nurse was star struck or something, but that’s still no excuse to expose such private things about people she really doesn’t know.
That twitter account turned out to be a fake, it was a troll used to tweet fake sightings and stuff.
She sounds more and more like a control freak, with her costant effort to portray her life as the perfect picture! Of course she is not tired, of course it is not a big change, of course she’s perfect with her holier than thou attitude. So annoying, even more irritating than Goop!
I bet she already has at least 2 nannies, that’s why she isn’t as stressed as any new mom. Since she has no actual career, I am sure she will try to make a baby every year to stay relevant. Her upcoming movie’s trailer looks as awfuul as her acting.
I didn’t get that overwhelmed exhausted feeling until much later, like 1 year to 18 months. My first couple weeks with my daughter, i was absolutely wasted love drunk, and in this high as a kite sort of daze, stupid grin on my face most of the time. I really didn’t get that saying “parenting is HARD” until 18 months.
I never sleep a ton though and I’m a natural night owl, so I was probably getting more sleep with a newborn than I was with school and full time work though, so that didn’t hurt. But I buy the happy bit totally. If she had a natural birth, she could have had an extra oxytocin release too.
And if you could smoke oxytocin, man…. Or they could put that in a pill… Whoo… That is one amazing high!!
I was kind of smug about how easy caring for a newborn by myself was. That changed around 18 months. Now she’s 2 and makes me cry
Your comments about oxytocin are spot on. I watched my sister deliver drug free and her son had to go right to the NICU since he was 8 weeks early, I went with him for about 10 minutes and when I got back my sis had delivered the placenta and was up bopping around the room on a crazy oxytocin high, she was so happy and energetic! She changed clothes then walked her as* straight down to see him, it was hilarious! She kept that high for at least a week.
Poor thing. If she says that her life has not changed radically, that she is overjoyed and wants other children soon, people remark that “Yes, of course, she has nothing to do the whole day. Wait till the child wakes her up at night and she does not get any sleep. She is really dumb, vapid, talentless, and probably has a couple of nannies looking after that child, etc. etc.”. If she says that she feels constantly exhausted, does not get any sleep and is always on the verge of tears because of a postpartum depression, the standard comment would be: “Well, I knew she was kind of dumb, but this is a bit much. Being talentless and and entitled, she probably has nothing to do and has two nannies helping her with the child. She has no idea how stressed she would be if she had a nine-to-five office work and, on top of that, housework, etc. etc.” If I were a so-called celebrity I would refuse interviews and keep my mouth shut.
These are not new quotes… I don’t read her interviews often and I remember the first quote form at least a few weeks ago.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this was given shortly before she gave birth, I don’t know. I know I wouldn’t be cheery if I had to push a mini me out of my hoo-ha. But then again–did she get a cover on Martha Stewart’s magazine, about her wedding, and all of the pictures were of the food? She and Ryan are teases, lol. But I think she’s saving her baby pics for her site–if she hadn’t had her site, she probably would’ve gone to PEOPLE, old school.
And I don’t know if it’s just me, but if I had a set number of kids that I was willing to get pregnant with (HA!), and I was married/in a stable relationship, then honestly, I’d want to get it over with. Two years between each kid, though, I’m not crazy–I know this one woman who had four kids in six years; had one miscarriage. She looks 10-15 years older than she really is, has significant health problems, and is married to a man child that I hate (but she got her tubes tied, so that’s cause for celebration).
I was gonna make a third point, but I can’t remember, so I might come back…..
Lol. That happens
The usually prestigious People Magazine have lost it claiming this as an ‘Exclusive’
As Kaiser said they don’t even have the child’s Gender never mind Name or Date of Birth
No new pics.
And these quotes looks like something every mother/bride says.
The Washington Post actually wrote they doubt there was even an interview.
I was very cheerful after having my daughter. I had a fairly easy delivery, but horrendous HG.
It may sound sappy, but it was the best day of my life ☺️ Just over 28 yrs ago & stil so clear in my mind.
I’m a horrible person, because whenever I hear people say they want more than two kids, I always think, “Thanks for not being concerned about the ecological footprint you’re leaving behind.” So I just roll my eyes at people like Blake when they want “tons’ of kids. Why not be happy with the one you have RIGHT NOW? :S
I don’t get this woman, at all. She is so average in looks and talent.
+ 1
So very overrated indeed!
LESS than average in talent. She is like a plant; she’s just there.
Ha! A plant! She should be named Philodendron
That is the comment of the day! Lol
Lmao Philodendron Lively.
I think evverything she’s doing now is because she knows she will never recapture her gossip girl fame. It seems like she’s desperate to stay in the public eye. Plenty of Hollywood moms love being moms but don’t have to have everything documented by the press to prove they love being moms.
+ 1
Her hustle is strong.
Maybe she’s trying to pull a comeback a la Sienna?
She is harmless enough, but she really doesn’t have a whole lot to offer. She is so vapid and dull.
I feel bad for her. We just don’t seem to be willing to let people make mistakes, grow, try things out.
She hasn’t found a steady place in the acting world, might not be a great actress (I never watched gossip girl), and she is using her platform to start a new venture in a realm that she is passionate about. I think she is stumbling through the beginnings of her business, as most do. I have 2 friends that started home based on line businesses, and they had to tweak and change as they went until they found what worked, and there were growing pains. She’s employing herself, and getting bashed for every aspect of it. And yes, she has been incredibly insensitive and unaware (antebellum), verbose and lyrical, but hopefully she learns.
I am glad women are trying, but I would hate to have to do it in the spotlight with zero grace and tolerance.
Oh for crying out loud. Yes, babies are great. But doesn’t she realize a baby is a baby for, like, a year? After that it is a PERSON with opinions and tantrums and sleeping problems and picky eating and weird rashes, and then it becomes a teenager with hormones and green hair and pot in its backpack and a driver’s license… Anybody can pop out a baby. It takes a superhero to be a really good parent. Babies GROW UP, Blake honey.
In theory, if I was super wealthy, I’d love to have a whole bunch of kids. Maybe a bio kid or two, but I’d love to be able to adopt as well. I didn’t have a big family, and the idea in theory appeals to me. But at the same time – you need to give soooo much to your kids when you’re doing that. Like you said – it’s one thing to have infants – they’re super time consuming, and fragile, and need a lot of care… but it’s a different kind of care when they start getting older. I’m not sure, even with a ton of wealth, how much I could be there for every single kid if I had a really large family. And I’d hate to think that any child I have wouldn’t feel like they’re getting enough attention from their parents.
Some unsolicited advice, Erinn…lol..
As someone from a house of five kids, unless (when you have your big family via pregnancy and/or adoption) you’re raising kids who think that your attention should always be on them, no matter what, then I think you’ll be fine on the attention front. Just do really simple things.
My dad used to take us out to dinner every week–one of us–wherever we wanted. That’s probably the most time I’ve ever had an in depth discussion with my dad about serious stuff (like we recently talked about video games, and he was wondering how they were considered to be a ‘boy thing’, and I said that basically, as a woman, why would I want to play a video game where 99% of the female characters are half naked and programmers did a half assed job of character development)….with my mom, it was just weekends, where we would binge watch tv shows, and just talk…about anything really. Or while she was cooking.
If you do stuff like that, then I think your future, theoretical kids would be pretty independent, with a good relationship with you. There were times that my parents didn’t get to spend a lot of time with us, because they needed to work (for a few years, my dad literally had about an hour at home before he went to bed, and then off to work again), but I never felt emotionally scarred by it or anything. I knew WHY (maybe that’s it), and I spent time with my siblings instead.
That’s the one time I’m good with big families – when people adopt their children. And this is coming from someone who grew up in a big family.
That’s a really good idea, VC. Really, I think, most kids can probably tell when you’re trying. I would watch tv with mom every night – and the longest/best conversations I had with my dad were when he’d pick me up at, or drop me off to university. It actually makes me feel better, haha, we have some multiples along the generations, and I’ve always been scared of having a bunch of kids at once. It must be nice to have a bunch of siblings to keep you company – I just had my younger brother, and we didn’t go out of our way to like hang out together. Husband has a best friend who is an only child, and his parents gave him soooo much attention growing up that it’s like he can’t handle being alone.
littlestar –
I’d really love to adopt. I might someday look into fostering or something. Adoption is soooo expensive, and I get why it is. But it sucks. I might not be rich, or even overly wealthy, but I could comfortably enough provide a life for a child.
Scratch that – I did find public adoption website for NS. I might have to look into that eventually because it’s low fee – or no fee organization. They just really want the kids to have a good home, and it’s usually kids past infancy, who need to be adopted with a sibling, or have a physical or learning disability, or health issue, etc.
@littlestar
I want to adopt most, if not all my kids. I am not in love with the idea of being pregnant. I’m not against it, it just isn’t something that is important to me. Plus I eat like a horse, and I’d balloon like KimK if I ever got pregnant. Except I wouldn’t be trying to squeeze into tiny clothes.
@Erinn
I was going to say you should look into fostercare adopting–are you in the US? There’s a really good site called Adopt US Kids; I follow them on FB. But basically it’s very inexpensive to adopt from fostercare–I think you have to pay for background checks, and the fostering/parenting classes (and some states reimburse you when its all said and done), but that’s about it. I want to adopt ‘older’ kids, and if you do too, then it’s a great resource.
I love big families- especially when people adopt. I’m not sure I would have a big family myself and I guess it would depend on the sort of partner I settled down with. Lots of kids can be stressful on a marriage. I guess wealth makes that less of a concern- for people like Blake and Ryan
I come from a family of 4,(the three youngest of us are 13 months apart respectively), and while both my parents came from large families( 12 and 6 children), and they wanted lots of kids and loved us and were amazing parents, I saw how hectic it was for them with us kids in every activity you can imagine. They worked hard at scheduling time to be alone together and maintaining the strength their relationship.
I love @Virgilia’s dad’s idea of taking each kid out for a special dinner. My mother use to organize adventure days. She would surprise one of us and randomly pull us out of school for the day(your grades had to be good or she wouldn’t let you miss school) and then take you on an adventure. It could be anything from going to a museum, an art gallery, a movie, a picnic in the park, once she pulled my brother out of school to go see the world series baseball trophy. It always made us feel really special.
Haha yes Belle 👏
Very much THIS
I laughed aloud at this comment, as I have tree teenagers. 🙂
She always sounds like a really boring YA novel.
For the baby’s name, my vote is still for Saran Wrap Reynolds.
AS IF she plans on sacrificing the Only thing of note she has going for her (her hot bod!) behind this
Sometimes there’s a new mom high. I had my first and that labor was horrific with everything going wrong and my daughter ending up in the NICU for a week. (Dream pregnancy though) I still couldn’t wait to have another one and my mom just looked at me like I was nuts! (She had been there for the whole ordeal) But I was always super pumped right after giving birth and full of energy and high spirits. 3 times in total. Other reasons prevented me from having ore and now that barn door is closed. 🙂 But I think sometimes there’s a hormonal or adrenaline rush or something.
I do think there’s an adrenaline rush that gets you through those early late night feedings. My first guy would wake up at 2 am and I’d be so happy to see his sweet little face. It wasn’t so easy with the second one, maybe because the first was a toddler.
Anyway, talking so much about planning to have tons of kids makes me a bit nervous…seems more prudent to enjoy the blessings while they are in front of you rather than immediately looking for the next one. You never know what life might bring to alter those plans.
“All the things I feel like I’m good at are thanks to my family, and they’re things we’re now embracing at Preserve: cooking, decorating, artistry.”
Uh artistry of what exactly?
The artistry of being artfully arty at farty pants grammar?
I still have NO IDEA what her site’s supposed to be doing….
Artistry, lol. Performance art maybe?
“Your kids also raise each other” yep that is what the Duggars are like. Mama Duggar pops out the kids and then hands them over to her older children to look after.
I’m British of Nigerian descent and y’know that’s what often happens in our culture.
Families raise each other.
Usually older cousins if the siblings are not of age
Its kind of “AAAH” now its associated with the Duggars!
Yes, I see your point and I also helped raise my younger siblings. The difference is when the child is just basically handed over to the siblings to take care of and the the mother is hardly involved at all.
Where the mother is ill or has to work to support the family, of course having the older siblings to help is a great thing. It does bring a family closer.
I only have an issue where the child is basically handed over to a sibling to raise and the mother has very little or no involvement.with the child. My mother had me help out with my siblings like I said earlier, but they were HER children and she knew I had to also experience life and all it had to offer. In the Duggars case the girls do all the child rearing and yet the boys do little or nothing to help out.
Oh I see.
I don’t watch the Duggars or know about their story. Except for they’re a big family
Thanks for the summary
I have three younger siblings and I did help raise them to a certain extent. I helped cook and clean, made sure my youngest brother had everything ready for school in the morning and then took him to school, sometimes went and did activities with him at school when a parent was needed, because both my parents were busy and worked. I think it was a good thing, gave me more responsibilities and helped me grow as a person.
So, it’s not Violet (which is a lovely name, too bad). It can’t be Rose, I guess she doesn’t want to copy her husband’s ex wife’s name. Let’s start the name game. I vote for:
Viola
Anabelle
Helena
Iris?
Cupcake Reynolds!
Sunshine Reynolds!
Bowlofcherries Reynolds!
Or how about just….Numberone Reynolds, then they can have Numbertwo Reynolds, and so on….
Ruby, Sophie/a, Elizabeth?
She paints pillow cases and sells pillows for $200 each. She paints all kinds of bugs too, not willing to sell. LOL!
Yeah, told ya it’s hormones. You want to pop out few more right after and you crash and burn after few weeks at home.Watch out for flash floods for no reason.
Assigning your older kids to take care of younger ones is almost abuse. Don’t have children if you can’t raise yourself, your kids needs to be kids and grow up normally. Duggars are selfish parents.
Pollyanna married Mary Sue, had a baby and it grew up to be Blake.
Platitude Lively.
As is often the case with PEOPLE, the so-called “exclusive” interview is a patchwork of quotes from previous interviews and often, other sources. She just had a baby ffs, if you are going to put her on the cover right after, shouldn’t the baby be the focal point — i.e. photos? ….. SMH. Yeah, I thought so.
That’s exactly what I said. You must be a great mind *wink*
didn’t see your post. great minds think alike.
I’ve noticed a lot of interviews like that lately. It’s obvious pieces of interviews I’ve read before, word for word, yet they are all put together as a new interview. I think you can tell from this People article she had not had the baby yet at all.
I saw a new Liam Neeson interview being floated around because Tak3n is coming out this weekend, and it was exact quotes taken from many interviews over the last two years and put together, not a new interview.
Yeah, I wanted a whole bunch of babies when I was young, too….Then I had two in a row and made an appointment for my husband to get a vasectomy (he went kicking and screaming)! I love my kids more than anything, but parenting is a lot of work and expense…of course, if you have a Nanny and a lot of money, I’m sure it’s easier!
Lol. My SIL looked up at me with her newborn third child in her arms, and said sweetly, “what the f*ck was I thinking?”
I hear you. I thought I wanted a big family but two boys 18 months apart, one with special needs, knocked me for a loop. I truly don’t know how people manage more.
I always wanted a lot of kids too. But add up day care expenses, groceries, etc. and there is NO way I could afford more than 2. And even that is tough.
But honestly, I work full time and I already feel like I can’t do all the things for them that I would like to do. If I added another child into the mix there would be even less of me to go around and I don’t feel like that would be fair to the two lovely boys I already have.
Well, good for her. She FINALLY found something she’s good at, that brings her a lot of attention: being fashionably, fabulously pregnant.
I have two minds about that interview. The basic thing of enjoying this moment and taking real joy in having a baby was sweet. It actually brought tears to my eyes, probably because I have never had a baby so I romanticize it to death. The second is, y’all, I love my mother with all of my heart, but if she called me up every day and sang about life being cherries I might explode from holding in all those thoughts like “get a life ffs” and ” cram it.”
lol….GNAT…I don’t know about that…my Mom was a Debbie Downer, would call me everyday with the any bad news she heard on the news, about someone we knew, etc. Love my Mom, but I think it would have been nice to hear her singing on the phone…Of course, too much either way would probably be annoying!
Well, you certainly have a point. There must be a happy medium. Lol
Yes! I thought that quote about her mom was especially ridiculous. Her idea of what happiness is is so literal it is kind of creepy.
@lirko: you’ve hit the nail on the head- she has some bulls*** idea of happiness based on her own magical sense of whimsy and girlish delight! that she sounds to me like a weirdo girl-woman.
She used to make me “meh”, lately she makes me “yeuchh”.
I have friends who have very negative moms, so much so at times they try to keep their distance. But none of them are close to their moms because of how difficult and negative they are, just are dutiful daughters. They would kill for a mother who was an eternal optimist.
Blake’s mom is probably a lot like Goldie Hawn. Goldie said that for whatever reason she has always had a joyful spirit, no matter what, even her nasty divorce with Hudson, the children’s custody, etc. She said the first time she couldn’t bring it to the forefront was when she lost her mom. Both of her parents were dead and here she was older but felt like an orphan and the sadness overwhelmed her for quite a while and colored everything..
My mom is super cheery, My husbands mother is a super-negative bitch. My mom can drive me crazy and annoy the heck out of me but really, she’s pretty delightful and she means well so I try to just suck it up. We don’t even talk to my mother in law.
Give it two weeks. Then we will know if she got an easy baby. If so, there will likely be another one ASAP. If not, watch for an article touting the benefits of nannies.
I don’t recall being roses and sunshine after giving birth. In fact, my words to my Mother were as follows “How do Women do this more than once?” I did have a very difficult pregnancy and nearly died giving birth so maybe that colored my experience. But I was really referring to the pain after a C-section. I’m sure that all Women who have had a C-section feel that same pain that I did. I love my son more than anything and I relish being a mother but lets be real…it’s not an easy job. I’m always suspect of people who say otherwise.
Lol, that reminds me of a story my mother told after she had my sister. She’d gone into labor too quickly for an epidural, and it had been a very painful and difficult birth. Now, afterwards, she was in those old style hospital wards separated by curtains, and this woman next to her was going on and on about how she didn’t think it was that bad, and her birth had been easy, etc, oblivious to how annoying she was to everyone around her. My mother apparently had just enough strength left to sit up, whip around, and tell her to speak for herself and shut the f*ck up.
She didn’t utter another word for the rest of the time my mother was there, haha.
Just read some other quotes from this interview of her, just posted on people website…she’s so vain and shallow!
This one is… odd. Blake’s not much of a typical career-driven hollywood actress, is she? It’s odd to see someone so young has a dream of being homemaker yet still stay in hollywoid spotlight. hmm..
Well, Duggar is easily connected with the negative. I think a better comparison would have been she’s taking Klum’s route. Heidi Klum upon having her 1st kid looked at the nurses wheeling her out and said something to the point of see you next year. And she had 1 after another. But Duggar will bring out more negativity so i’m not shocked it was used.
Good post FLORC!
Some women just love the chaos, sense of purpose and connection that having kids brings, and these quotes sound like family, kids and unity matter to her (and I recognize that kids are not the only way to have unity, purpose and connections, but they are particular road to that kind of life).
I wanted more kids (I have 2), but my husband said he wanted a steadier sex life before we tried for a third. I still have 2 ; )
That being said, I like order, so having more kids would likely not have been in the best interest of the family. I have cousins who just embrace busy-ness, noise and all that comes with it, and I think that they are more ideally suited to larger families than I am.
The whole “feminist” bent of this entire site seems really incompatible with the incessant passive agressive posts about female celebrities the bloggers don’t care for. It doesn’t make sense to me.
Very Very Interesting Point.
I get your point, and I think it’s a good one. I would just say that , to me, feminism means sex equality. It doesn’t mean that you have to like every other woman, or agree with everything every other woman says. I think the women on here support Blake’s right to choose her own life, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be called out for statements that seem silly, disingenuous, pretentious or whatever. I do agree that there are comments such as “her head is too big for her body” (I just made that up) that would not fit into what I see as feminist attitude. But there is equal snarking about men and their comments, appearance, fashion, etc.
Very well said!
@GoodNames
I really always like your comments here and other pages.
But Ashley’s points are very prescient
I do think you’re the not the kind of person this post refers to.
Jegede
Thank you. I enjoy yours, too, and especially appreciate your last remark. You’re right, her point has validity. I didn’t mean to sound dismissive of it. My role in the family is “peacemaker” so sometimes I try to make everything ok when I should just butt out.
I don’t know…I think my angriest posts on this site have all been directed at gross men (Allen, Polanski, etc). But a point worth making definitely.
Man, she’s doing everything she can to fit into that image of Suzie Homemaker, isn’t she? Minivan moms will think she’s just! like! them! and minivan dads want to f*ck the sh*t out of her. That’s how it works, right? Play like your in control, but not *too* in control or it’ll intimidate men.
Backwards. We are going backwards.
+ 1000
Yeah, she hadn’t had the baby at the time of the interview. I know a few women who have and love large families, but none of them were talking about having more babies immediately after bringing one home. That’s the period where things are so hard!
Yep, she definitely gave this interview before baby. First pregnancy is always a fun world of twists and firsts, you can nap, you don’t get big right away, blah blah. Just wait. If you have no nanny and no grandparents climbing on board to help, it get tough. A little bit of a feeling from my experience is that the people with the highest hopes are usually the ones who experience the worst post partum. Just saying, my experience with these kinds of people.
is her mum a hippie?
When I read the quote, I legit wondered if her mom was a cartoon character.
She seems harmless and has a bubbly personality. I don’t get the hate for this one, at all.
Maybe Lila. Lila Reynolds is pretty.
That coat! I want it. I wouldn’t mind having her legs either except in cocoa brown.
^Aaaaaaand that sounded way creepier than I intended.