Blake Lively forces journalist Magnus Sundholm to drink Ryan Reynolds' gin on camera in resurfaced video

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Blake Lively compelled Swedish journalist Magnus Sundholm to sip her husband Ryan Reynolds' gin on-camera in a resurfaced controversial interview amid her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni.

Sundholm, an LA-based writer for Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, told Daily Mail, it was "sneaky, cheap and disrespectful" of Lively.

Blake Lively forces journalist Magnus Sundholm to consume gin during 'A Simple Favor' interview

The 'Gossip Girl' alum was interviewed briefly by Magnus Sundholm at 10 am in August 2018 regarding her film 'A Simple Favor', which was scheduled for release the following month.

However, Lively pulled out a bottle of Aviation Gin, produced by Reynolds' booze company, and persuaded Sundholm to consume it at a 10 am interview in 2018, leaving him stunned and uncomfortable.

Sundholm claimed that Lively "hijacked" their four-minute conversation under the flimsy guise of misunderstanding his request for a camera "shot" for alcohol.

The reporter claimed that he was taken aback when Lively pulled out her husband's gin brand and insisted that he taste it. She tried to coerce him into emptying his glass when he didn't finish.

In the video, Lively flashed a bottle of Reynolds' Aviation Gin to the camera and said, "Magnus, when I saw you earlier you said 'let me get a shot', and I thought you meant of alcohol, but you meant a photograph."

"So guess what? Time to put up," she said, to which Sundholm exclaimed, "Uh oh," before asking, "What are we drinking?"

"Aviation American Gin, who's owned by a very, very sexy man, who also happens to be my husband," Lively replied.

Sundholm claimed that Lively "ambushed" him despite his desire to avoid drinking at that hour of the morning. He said that he could have objected but "played along" because he wanted to keep the actress satisfied.

Sundholm responded, grimacing uneasily: "So, we're starting early." With a direct gaze on him, Lively declared, "We are starting early. What better time to start."

He assured her it was "good" after taking a sip. However, Lively argued that his "voice went higher an octave" before urging him to "just shoot it, just shoot it." He made an effort to decline politely by stating, "I'll be singing if I finish this."

"It'll be so much more interesting," Lively relentlessly replied. The interview in New York seemed "like an ambush—a carefully planned PR ambush," Sundholm told the Mail.

"She used my short interview time for blatant product placement. I found it sneaky, cheap and disrespectful," he added.

According to Sundholm, Lively's teetotal, or abstinence from alcohol, made the event even more unpleasant.

"I thought the whole thing was strange. I still wonder why someone who doesn't drink would push alcohol on someone else," he said.

Magnus Sundholm claims Blake Lively 'ambushed' him although he didn't want to drink

In a video that was uploaded to YouTube in September 2024, Sundholm's girlfriend, journalist Kjersti Flaa, questioned him about "his cringe interview with Blake Lively."

"You looked very uncomfortable there. You looked like you were suffering a little bit, and didn't know what to do," Flaa said.

Sundholm replied, "It was early in the morning. It was kind of surreal in a way. I was there to interview her. They'd built a set. And I was completely ambushed by her promoting her husband's gin."

"Most countries in the world, you can't show that. You can't have a booze commercial, basically, in what's supposed to be regular content," he added.

Sundholm continued, "She hijacked the interview, in a sense. She took almost half of that interview to talk about product placement, basically. I drank gin at 10am. I kind of felt like I had to."

"You come up there after having had your cereal and milk, and then all of a sudden you get gin served on the rocks. I'm not saying I'm a victim. I could have said no. But the whole setup was weird."

Sundholm claimed that it was "blatant promotional thing" and he "played along." "I could, of course, have objected. But my job is to make the talent play along. I want to be friendly, I want her to open up," he added.

Sundholm concurred with Flaa that he felt "used," pointing out that the conversation about gin occupied half of the four minutes Lively's handlers allotted them. "You walk out of there thinking, what the – just happened," he remarked.

Sundholm shared the extremely awkward discussion on YouTube in 2024, and it was only a single of Lively's many videos that have made her fans "cringe" in recent months.

These include snapping at Norwegian journalist Flaa when she congratulated Lively on her pregnancy, and "tone deaf" name-dropping her own alcohol brand while promoting her film on domestic abuse.