Are Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen Friends in Real Life?
Queen B of New York City’s Upper East Side, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), ran the Constance Billard School for Girls in all her headband-wearing glory on the CW teen drama, Gossip Girl, from 2007 to 2012 during the show’s six seasons.
Her other half, It girl Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), played the Kate Moss to Waldorf’s Audrey Hepburn. They were BFFs on the show but are the actresses friends in real life?
Are Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen friends in real life?
The girls, who called each other “B” and “S” on the show, were at odds with one another in the pilot episode. Meester harbored feelings for a year about her BFF because she left for boarding school without any goodbyes or so much as an explanation.
When S brought “dry caps and Audrey” to B’s house the Sunday following her return, B wasn’t having it. She unceremoniously kicked S out of her house.
This is one of the many hurdles the BFFs overcame in the series. Even though they had many fights, the two were always there for each other in the end.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. These are fictional characters we’re talking about and not the actresses themselves.
So, are Meester and Lively friends in real life? Like other TV shows, friction has been suspected, and almost encouraged, between cast members.
Meester and Lively, both now in their thirties, are married with at least one child. In the ultimate TV series crossover, Meester married Adam Brody, who played The O.C.’s, Seth Cohen.
As for Lively, she dated her on-screen love interest, Penn Badley, who played Dan Humphrey, on Gossip Girl. The two eventually broke up with Lively marrying actor Ryan Reynolds. They have two children together and are expecting a third.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, the cast and producers of Gossip Girl gave some insight about the show. Notably, executive producer Joshua Safran provided insight about Lively and Meester’s relationship.
“Blake and Leighton were not friends,” Safran said. “They were friendly, but they were not friends like Serena and Blair. Yet the second they’d be on set together, it’s as if they were.”
Safran added that the two were simply two very different people. He described Lively as “very in the moment,” and Meester as “very removed and very quiet.”
Is there going to be a ‘Gossip Girl’ reboot?
Chatter about a Gossip Girl reboot has been circulating but what do two of the main characters have to say about it?
“No one’s ever asked me,” Meester told E! News. “No one’s ever talked to me about it except for in interviews and I always say the same: I never say ‘never,’ so I don’t know. No one’s sent me that information, it’s coming from you.”
“It sort of all depends,” Lively told Variety in April 2017. “Would I do seven years of the show? No, because it’s hard work and I’ve got my babies, and I don’t want to be away from them that much. But I’ve just learned in life you never say ‘never.’ I’m looking to do something that I haven’t done yet, not something that I did. But would I do that? Who knows—if it was good, if it made sense. We had so much fun shooting and living and working in New York City.”
What’s Leighton Meester doing now?
Since Gossip Girl ended Meester has released an album (yes, she can sing and act) and she’s starred in a number of TV shows.
She played Deborah Revere on the TV series, Making History, for nine episodes before the show got canceled.
Currently, she plays Angie D’Amato on the ABC comedy series, Single Parents. Her husband, Brody, recently made a cameo on the show as her ex.
What’s Blake Lively doing now?
In a post-Gossip Girl world, Lively returned to the film world where she got her start in acting.
She played a woman who didn’t age in The Age of Adaline in 2015. A year later, she appeared in the Woody Allen film, Cafe Society. The same year, she played a surfer who got attacked by a shark.
Most recently, she’s starred in A Simple Favor, opposite Anna Kendrick.
