
Blake Lively praises mom for influence and support
Blake Lively has praised her mom for being a huge influence on her life.
The Another Simple Favor actress has expressed her gratitude to Willie Elaine McAlpin for always finding the time to "do creative things" with her throughout her life and always believing in her endeavours.
Blake shared a photo of herself smiling with a huge bouquet of flowers and wrote on her Instagram Story: 'Grateful to my mama for always doing creative things with me.
"Even when she was working nonstop and had zero time. She always told me I 'couldn't mess it up,' when I very much could.
'What a lifelong gift that creative empowerment and trust has been. Most of my passions come from, or thanks to, her.'
Blake - who has four children with husband Ryan Reynolds - had carefully arranged the bouquet herself from flowers she'd grown.
She also shared a close-up picture of the flowers and wrote: 'My flower babies, from seeds to cutting, to arrangement. @me for your next graduation funeral or wedding.(sic)"
This isn't the first time Blake has honoured her mother recently.
While attending the TIME 100 Gala event in New York City, at which she was honoured as one of the publication's most influential people, the 37-year-old star took the time to praise her mom.
Alluding to her legal battle with It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni, she said it was "surreal and deeply significant" to be honoured during "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."
She added: "I have so much to say about the last two years of my life, but tonight is not the forum."
Instead, she said she wanted to discuss "the feeling of being a woman who has a voice today."
She added: "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 said her mom credited a woman who she'd heard on the radio speaking about a "similar circumstance" for offering her hope.
She continued: "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."
The former Gossip Girl star ended her speech with a thank you to "every man, including my sweet husband, who are kind and good when no one is watching."

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