Blake Lively makes bold red carpet statement as beleaguered actress arrives at premiere with Ryan Reynolds

All eyes were on Blake Lively as she arrived to a special screening of her upcoming movie, Another Simple Favor, with Ryan Reynolds in New York City on Sunday. 

The 37-year-old Gossip Girl star commanded attention in a plunging white gown, which hugged every inch her hourglass figure. 

She accessorized the floor-length dress, which featured a criss-cross design across the bodice that dipped down to her hips, with a pair of statement earrings and several sparkly pink bracelets from Lorraine Schwartz. 

For the occasion, the actress wore her long blonde hair in romantic waves, nude lip gloss and a glamorous makeup look. 

She was joined by her husband, 48, who appeared every inch the doting husband as he stood by her side on the red carpet in a grey suit and brown loafers. 

The couple appeared in high spirits following their soccer club Wrexham AFC’s major victory on Saturday.

Over the weekend, their football team Wrexham AFC won a historic third successive promotion to reach the Championship. 

Their latest loved-up outing together comes after Lively was hit by widespread backlash for her speech at the Time100 Gala on Thursday night.

Ryan accompanied his wife to Thursday’s event held at Jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York City, where she was honoured as one of the magazine’s most influential people of the year.

In her speech, Blake alluded to her legal war with former co-star

while revealing her mother’s past assault by a ‘work acquaintance.’

‘I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum,’ she said, hinting at her ongoing bitter court battle with Baldoni, whom she accused of sexual harassment, which he denied.

Instead, she decided to speak about ‘the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today.’

Blake shared that her life was ‘influenced most’ by her mother, Willie Elaine McAlpin, who was the ‘survivor of the worst crime someone can commit against a woman.’

She said: ‘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 stated that her mother credited a woman who shared 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.’

She then called womanhood a ‘pact that privately we must show others how to survive, literally or spiritually.’

‘We don’t let our daughters know, but one day we break their hearts by letting them in on the secret that we kept from them as they pranced around in princess dresses that they are not and will likely never be safe at work, at home, in a parking lot in a medical office, online — in any space they inhabit physically, emotionally, professionally.’

Blake called the ‘superpower of female triumph’ a ‘basic human right,’ and added, ‘Never underestimate a woman’s ability to endure pain.’

While she also paid tribute to Ryan, as she thanked ‘every man, including my sweet husband, who are kind and good when no one is watching.’

But viewers were left unimpressed by the speech, taking to social media to blast Blake for sharing her mother’s trauma as an ‘obvious PR move’ amid her ongoing feud with Baldoni.

Many fans criticized the star for using her mother’s ordeal in the speech, after remaining silent on domestic violence while promoting It Ends With Us — directed by and co-starring Baldoni — which portrayed an abusive relationship.

‘Oh so now she is using her Mother’s SA to be likable??? But in August she didn’t mention DV when promoting a movie about DV. Interesting…’ one person wrote.

‘Blake Lively used her Time100 speech to reveal her mother is a rape survivor—an obvious PR move to align with SA victims. Yet, with that personal connection to trauma, she still couldn’t figure out how to market a movie about DV? What’s next for her, a Peace Nobel Prize?’ another added.

‘Why wasn’t she having these speeches when she was promoting the movie?? Instead she was promoting alcohol and naming drinks after the characters. don’t understand why they keep giving her a platform.’

‘My mom is a victim so I know suffering too? What is the point in telling mom’s story?’ another person questioned.

Elsewhere in her speech, Blake discussed being an honouree ‘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.’

As for being called influential, she said: ‘How we use that matters. Who and what we stand up for, and what we stay silent about, what we monetize versus what we actually live, matters.’