Blake Lively has never been afraid of a little honesty, and one of her most memorable descriptions of motherhood involved a comparison that few parents would dare make out loud.
In a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the Gossip Girl actress compared life with a newborn to living with someone whose behaviour could change without warning. Her analogy was deliberately outrageous, but the affection behind it was unmistakable.
At the time, Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds had recently welcomed their first daughter, James, in December 2014. The actress was promoting The Age of Adaline while navigating the exhausting and unpredictable demands of being a first-time mother.
What did Blake Lively say about motherhood?
Speaking to journalist Amy Kaufman, Lively described the unpredictability of caring for a baby, from sudden smiles to equally sudden tears and messy surprises.
Her comparison was intended as a joke about those rapid changes in behaviour, rather than a serious statement about addiction.
But the humour was only half the story. Lively also explained that, despite the exhaustion and uncertainty, she found the experience so rewarding that she already wanted more children.
The interview revealed another side of Blake Lively
The conversation took place during a particularly demanding period for the actress. She was returning to the big screen with The Age of Adaline after several years away from leading film roles, while adjusting to life with her infant daughter.
In an unusually personal moment, Lively brought James to the interview and breastfed her while speaking with Kaufman. The encounter offered a glimpse of the practical reality behind the carefully guarded private life she and Reynolds maintained.
The couple had initially kept details about their daughter's birth private, including her name, which Reynolds publicly confirmed months later.
That contrast made Lively's remarks particularly memorable: a Hollywood star who protected her child's privacy while speaking remarkably openly about the less glamorous realities of parenting.
The original conversation appeared in the Los Angeles Times on April 24, 2015. Although her comments have resurfaced in celebrity coverage over the years, they were made during her first months as a mother, not in a recent interview.
