Reporter from now-viral Blake Lively interview says 2016 chat left her 'traumatized'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Blake Lively is back in the headlines again, but this time it is not because of her legal controversy with Justin Baldoni over 'It Ends With Us'. Instead, attention has shifted to a resurfaced 2016 interview that has gone viral online again over comments about her "little bump."

Entertainment reporter Kjersti Flaa has now shared her thoughts on how she felt during the interview and why she decided to conduct it. The clip is once again going viral online. Flaa described the experience as “really traumatizing and shocking," as per PEOPLE. Flaa explained that she chose to stay quiet during the interview because she feared that reacting to what she described as rude behavior from Lively could damage her career.

The reporter also claimed she felt Lively and Posey were “ganging up” on her during the exchange.

Kjersti Flaa speaks out on the now-viral Blake Lively interview

Flaa recently reflected on the resurfaced interview, which featured Lively and her 'Cafe Society' co-star Parker Posey. During the sit-down, Flaa congratulated the actress on her “little bump” while Lively was pregnant then. Lively then responded, “Congrats on your little bump.”

Looking back at the moment, Flaa admitted she immediately felt uncomfortable during the interview. “I was just sitting there. At first, I was like, wow, this is really uncomfortable,” Flaa said, adding that she was “in shock” over how the conversation unfolded.

"As a journalist, you always have to take the high road,” Flaa said. “So when I was sitting there, I couldn’t react." Flaa also opened up about the pressure journalists face while interviewing A-list celebrities, saying she worried about being blacklisted from future interviews if she pushed back during the interaction. 

"As a journalist, you always have to take the high road, you know?" she said. "So when I was sitting there, I couldn’t react to what they were doing to me in a sense of like leaving or talking back to them or doing anything like that, because I knew if I did, then I would never get opportunities like that again."

Flaa said she became increasingly “frustrated,” “angry,” and “upset” during the interview because she “couldn’t believe” what was happening, adding that she was “just in shock,” according to People.

For Flaa, it would have gone a long way if Lively had just reached out with an apology. "Blake had every opportunity to right this wrong because she clearly knew very well that this interview existed and got out there, and nothing happened,” Flaa said, wondering where they would be today if she had just "reached out" to make amends.

What happened during Blake Lively's 2016 interview?

In the resurfaced interview, Flaa congratulated Lively, who had recently announced she was expecting her second child, on her "little bump." The comment quickly turned awkward when the actress replied, "Congrats on your little bump."

As Flaa laughed off the remark, Parker Posey attempted to lighten the mood by joking about her own “bump.” The two actresses then continued chatting about Posey’s “lovely lady lumps” while Flaa sat quietly nearby.

Without directly looking at the reporter, Lively responded to Posey, saying, “Everyone wants to talk about the clothes, but I wonder if they would ask the men about the clothes.” After Flaa insisted she would ask male actors similar questions, Lively and Posey began discussing the outfits worn by their male co-stars instead.

“It’s not just the women who have the clothes, but I feel like the women get the conversation,” Lively added and conversed with her co-star.