Blake Lively accused of cultural appropriation as resurfaced ad shows her claiming Cherokee heritage

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Blake Lively is in hot water (again), and this time it's over a resurfaced clip that’s got people accusing her of cultural appropriation.

The 37-year-old actress — who’s already caught up in a courtroom showdown with her 'It Ends With Us' co-star Justin Baldoni — is now facing backlash for an old L’Oréal Paris True Match foundation ad from 2017, where she proudly declared her Cherokee ancestry.

Blake Lively faces backlash over resurfaced ad

In the clip, the 'Gossip Girl' star is rocking her signature blonde hair and blue eyes as she boasts: "I'm English, Irish, German, and Cherokee. So my family's sort of from all over. To look back far into my heritage and see where everybody came from, you know, it's neat to be in this country that has such diversity and such culture."

TikToker Stephanie Tleiji reposted the ad on Sunday and wrote alongside: "I was today years old learning about this honestly." The video instantly went viral, racking up millions of views and rekindling an old debate.

Critics dragged Lively for what they saw as yet another case of "Cherokee syndrome" - where people with no real ties to the tribe casually claim Indigenous ancestry.

"It's giving appropriation... her great great great grandmother twice removed must be a Cherokee princess," one commented.

"It literally never ends with her…" another quipped, referencing her movie with Baldoni.

"I swear it’s always Cherokee when people claim they have native ancestry," someone else chimed in.

"She literally has never been on the right side of history," another insisted.

That wasn’t the only thing people found cringeworthy in the resurfaced ad. Elsewhere in the clip, Lively gushes about her love for color: "There's such a variety of colors because everyone's skin has such different nuances."

She also talks about loving the "no-makeup" look, claiming she prefers a foundation that enhances her beauty instead of covering it up like a "mask."

But this isn’t the first time Lively has been called out for problematic behavior.

Blake Lively’s history of controversies

Back in 2016, she found herself at the center of a racism controversy when she posted a split-image of herself at the 'Cafe Society' premiere with the caption: "L.A face with an Oakland booty."

People were not amused, calling her out for being a wealthy, privileged white woman who was using Black culture as a punchline. She deleted the post following the backlash.

Another wild clip resurfaced recently - this time featuring Lively talking about wearing blackface to "stalk" a guy.

The scandalous interview shows Lively chatting with Justin Long while promoting her 2006 film 'Accepted'. Lively casually drops that as a teen she was a "total geek" before launching into a truly jaw-dropping confession: "My best friend and I, when we were in 10th grade, had like crazy crushes, we’d drive around like stalking these guys."

What's more? She admits she literally darkened her skin to go unnoticed: "We decided one night to go to the arcade where they were, and I put bronzer all over myself and a Scary Spice 'fro so I think they'd think I was a Black girl, so I could stalk them. And my friend dressed up as this goth girl, and we literally sat outside their houses."

But nobody in the interview flinched. Long didn’t even question it and instead responded with: "So that makes you sweet and charming, you're still hot."

And let’s not forget one of Lively’s most infamous scandals - her 2012 wedding to Ryan Reynolds at a plantation in South Carolina.

The couple tied the knot at Boone Hall Plantation & Gardens, a venue with a very dark history of slavery. Guests enjoyed a breathtaking backdrop of preserved slave cabins and cotton fields - which did not sit right with many people.

Reynolds later admitted in a 2020 interview that getting married there was a "giant f**king mistake."

The backlash was so intense that the couple ended up remarrying at their home in New York, the Daily Mail reported.

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