- On Friday, mother of three Blake Lively took to the comment section on Daily Mail Australia's Instagram account to put the outlet on blast for publishing paparazzi pictures of her children.
- The 33-year-old actress pointed out that the post, which included a picture of her smiling and waving at the camera was edited in a "deceitful" way and did not represent the reality of what she and her daughters—James, 6, Inez, 4, and Betty, 1—went through the day the photos were taken.
- Lively described the "terrifying" experience in detail and called on fans and readers to boycott outlets that publish paparazzi photos of celebrity children.
Blake Lively is calling out the disturbing and dangerous practice of paparazzi taking pictures of celebrity children.
On Friday, Daily Mail Australia shared a post on Instagram with pictures of Lively and her three daughters—James, 6, Inez, 4, and Betty, 1—during an outing in New York City. "Blake Lively is a hands-on mum as she expertly wrangles ALL THREE daughters while out in NYC 💕👶," the outlet captioned the post, which included a composite shot two pictures, one of Lively pushing two of her daughters in a stroller and carrying the other on her hip and a second of the actress smiling and waving at the camera.
Lively took to the post's comment section to eviscerate the site for sharing the photos of her children and contributing to the problem of paparazzi stalking (and, in many cases scaring and traumatizing) celebrity children in pursuit of pictures.
She also pointed out the fact that post's like Daily Mail Australia's paint an inaccurate picture of the relationship between celebrities and paparazzi, especially when the former's children are involved. "You edit together these images together to look like I’m happily waving. But that is deceitful," she wrote, later explaining that the photo of her smiling had been part of a deal she struck with one of the photographers in exchange for leaving her children alone.
In her candid and powerful comment on the post, Lively wrote:
"You edit together these images together to look like I’m happily waving. But that is deceitful. The real story is: my children were being stalked by a man all day. Jumping out. And then hiding. A stranger on the street got into words with them because it was so upsetting for her to see. When I tried to calmly approach the photographer you hired to take these pictures in order to speak to him, he would run away.And jump out again at the next block.
Do you do background checks on the photograph[er]s you pay to stalk children? Where is your morality here? I would like to know. Or do you simply not care about the safety of children?
The photographers who would speak to me, I was able to agree to smile and wave and let them take my picture away from my children if they would leave my kids alone. Because it was frightening.
Tell the whole story, @dailymailau. At a minimum, listen to your followers. They too understand this is dark and upsetting that you pay people to stalk children. Please stop paying grown-ass men to hide and hunt children. There are plenty of pictures you could’ve published without the kids. Please delete. C’mon. Get with the times."
The post has since been deleted, but Comments by Celebs captured it—and Lively's comment (and shared with star emojis pasted over her children's faces to protect their privacy, which, in addition to safety, is another one of the issues at hand, of course):
The actress is continuing to follow the story, and took to the comments of the Comments by Celebs post as well to thank the page for sharing her account of the incident and to offer tips to fans and readers who want to let outlets know they're opposed to paparazzi photos of children.
"Thank for sharing," Lively wrote. "One simple thing people can do is stop following and block any publications or handles who publish kid’s pictures. Feel free to report them. Or send a dm sharing why you don’t follow them. But it’s a simple way of only aligning with publications who have morality. And so many do. All are trying to service an audience. So if that audience makes it clear they don’t want something —like photos of children obtained by men frightening and stalking them— the publication or account will do what the audience wants. It’s the only way that so many have already stopped. Because the people demanded it. So thank you to everyone who’s made that difference already. And thank you again for sharing. It’s fucking scary."
Lively isn't the only celebrity parent who has voiced concerns for their children's safety when it comes to dealing with paparazzi. Others, including Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, have also spoken out about the issue over the years.
