Blake Lively Hit With Fresh Pain As Her Gwyneth Paltrow-Style Wellness Firm Is Branded 'Toxic and Unprofessional'
Blake Lively just keeps on taking hits, as this time her lifestyle brand is under a microscope.
May 20 2025, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
The last couple of months for Blake Lively have not been nice at all to the actress, as her now-defunct lifestyle brand, Preserve, is being completely torn to bits.
The 37-year-old – who is tangled up in a legal nightmare with her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni – now has critics burying her failed company over a "toxic and unprofessional" workplace, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
A 'Chaotic' Company
Lively's failed company, Preserve, is feeling the heat years after it closed its doors.
Lively kicked off the brand in 2014, which was originally intended to duke it out with Gwyneth Paltrow's very popular company Goop. However, Preserve would only stay afloat for a year before cleaning house and closing its doors.
And according to multiple employees, behind-the-scenes was nothing but "chaos," with some pointing out the "irony" of the "entitled" movie star's current lawsuit all about an inappropriate workplace leveled against Baldoni.
"The entire company was an absolute disaster," one ex-employee said. "The workplace allegations that Blake is making now (against Baldoni) are deeply ironic, given that it was one of the most insane, toxic, emotionally draining, and disorganized environments you could imagine."
Lively Didn't 'Care' About Her Employees
Preserve was supposed to compete with Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop but failed to deliver.
Another staffer added: "The impression (Lively) left on me after I worked at Preserve is that she doesn't care. It was a really toxic work environment."
When Preserve first started, it was operated out of a New York City studio apartment owned by Lively's brother Eric. He allegedly drank alcohol and smoked pot, and is said to have left staff out in the cold when he overslept.
According to staff, many were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements after the company fell apart, with some believed to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars after threatening legal action over their treatment.
Not So Much Brotherly Love
Former employees revealed Lively's publicist, Leslie Sloan, did all she could to keep the brand's disaster out of the news, as one person added: "Leslie Sloane shut it down. They buried every single thing from that company."
While Preserve began on a positive note, things unraveled when Eric was put in a leadership role, according to employees.
"(Eric) was completely unqualified to run a company," one staffer said. "There were a lot of ways in which the employment was unprofessional.
"For many weeks or months, there were no desks. We had to sit on the floor. The irony of it being a lifestyle site that was selling these really expensive wares was not lost on anyone."
In one particular moment in 2015, staffers revealed they were driven to the A Simple Favor star's mansion in New York for a photoshoot, but Lively didn't appear for two hours after the group arrived.
"(Staff) said (Lively) came out of her house hours late, looking like an absolute mess," a source claimed. "The whole idea was to show that she was 'styling' the shoots. All she was doing was adding accessories like bracelets for the pictures. That was her only input."
The insider added: "Other employees also told me about a Preserve fashion shoot run by Eric in New York, days later. Blake had no part in it."
Preserve, which was helped run by the movie star's brother Eric, fell apart after a year in business.
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Preserve's failure was blamed on sexism and the media by Lively in a previous interview, as she said: "You don’t see male entrepreneurs pitted against each other, destroyed, picked apart, and every word they say served up to judge."
However, employees are still upset over their alleged treatment and how Lively did not step in.
"She didn't care to understand how the mismanagement of her brother could be affecting us," one said. "She's entitled and extremely out of touch, and really only cares about herself."
Lively is currently embroiled in a legal nightmare with 'It Ends With Us' co-star Justin Baldoni.
In December 2024, Lively filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni, but he would respond with his own $400million countersuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
The trial is set to kick off in March 2026.
