Blake Lively Faces Another Setback As Betty Booze Shutdown Rumors Swirl

MEGAMEGA

Blake Lively‘s business ambitions once extended beyond Hollywood, with the actress building a beverage company around a personal connection to her family and a growing market for premium mixers and ready-to-drink cocktails. 

Now, questions have emerged about the future of one part of that venture. Reports of stalled social media activity and abandoned trademark applications have fueled speculation that Betty Booze could be winding down, adding another difficult development to Lively’s already challenging period.

Blake Lively’s Betty Booze Faced Questions Over Its Future

The warning signs surrounding Blake Lively’s Betty Booze appeared to extend beyond a quiet spell on social media. According to trademark records reviewed by TMZ, several applications connected to Lively’s beverage company had reportedly been abandoned. 

Those filings covered products including beer-based drinks, non-alcoholic carbonated beverages and other offerings, raising questions about how far the business planned to expand.

The situation reportedly prompted claims that Betty Booze was “slowly shutting down,” although its existing trademarks, alongside those belonging to its sister brand Betty Buzz, remained active. 

That distinction was important: abandoned applications did not, on their own, establish that either brand had ceased operating.

The company’s online presence offered another indication of reduced activity. Betty Buzz had not published anything on Instagram since April 5, when it shared a drink recipe. 

Betty Booze’s most recent post was dated September 28 and promoted its vodka iced tea. 

Lively Built Her Beverage Business Around Mixers

Blake Lively’s entry into the drinks market had been somewhat unconventional, given that she openly acknowledged not consuming alcohol. 

She introduced Betty Buzz in 2021, initially focusing on non-alcoholic mixers before expanding into alcoholic beverages under the Betty Booze name in 2023.

When she first announced the mixer brand, she addressed the apparent contradiction between her business venture and personal habits. 

“I don’t drink. I know that’s odd coming from the wife of an infamous gin slinger,” she said per the Daily Mail, referring to husband Ryan Reynolds and his Aviation American Gin business.

Her interest, she explained, came from years of preparing cocktails without drinking them. According to her, “Over the past many years of mixing but not drinking cocktails, it became clear mixers are the unsung heroes of the drink world and deserve just as much love as alcohol.”

The actress also described the time invested in developing the products, saying, “We’ve spent the last three years crafting Betty Buzz and are so excited for people to finally taste it,” she concluded in her statement.

Blake Lively’s Family Legacy Helped Shape Betty Buzz’s Name

ZUMAPRESS.com / MEGA

The company’s identity carried a family connection that went beyond Lively’s celebrity profile. She explained that Betty Buzz was named in tribute to her late father, Ernest Brown Jr., who was professionally known as Ernie Lively.

“My dad’s name was Ernest Brown Jr but he was known as Ernie Lively,” she said. “He gave up his last name when he married my mom and any success here, or I, have experienced has been in a name that isn’t his.”

Lively said she wanted the business to reflect a name that held personal meaning for her father. 

“So when I was working hard to build this company, I wanted any success to be in a name that was meaningful to him. Betty was his mom and his sister’s name,” the Hollywood star admitted. 

She also offered a lighter explanation for not using her father’s name for the product line, stating,  “Also, Ernie would not be the best name for a mixer.”

More From The Blast

• Blake Lively’s beauty and beverage businesses previously faced reports of major sales declines.
• Lively’s sister brand Betty Buzz had already faced reports of a quiet shutdown months before the latest Betty Booze speculation.
• Justin Baldoni’s legal team previously challenged Lively’s claims about her financial losses.
• Lively previously faced criticism for launching an alcoholic drinks brand despite not drinking, later explaining the reasoning behind Betty Booze’s creation.
• The actress’s Blake Brown Beauty line also faced troubling customer complaints revealed in court documents.
• Lively suffered another legal setback shortly after settling with Baldoni, when a judge rejected a request connected to the continuing fight over legal fees and damages.

Lively Expanded Betty Booze With Its First Vodka Cocktails

Nancy Rivera/MEGA

The family significance behind Betty Buzz’s name was only one part of the identity Blake Lively had built around her beverage company. 

Betty Booze also developed its own product range, and the actress pursued a wider selection of cocktails as the brand sought to offer consumers more than its original tequila and bourbon options.

In June 2025, the company introduced its first vodka-based ready-to-drink cocktails: Vodka Iced Tea + Meyer Lemonade and Vodka Iced Tea + Passion Fruit. 

Both varieties combined vodka with real black tea and fruit juice, marking a new category for the brand’s canned offerings.

Lively described the drinks as an extension of recipes she had personally developed, rather than simply another celebrity-branded product. 

“Whether you’re at a BBQ, a beach hang, or just spending time at home, our new Vodka Teas are made from recipes created in my home, by hand, built to share and enjoy,” she said in the launch announcement.

The expansion also gave Betty Booze a different format from its earlier sparkling cocktails. The vodka iced teas were non-carbonated and were initially made available through the brand’s website, Total Wine and BevMo, alongside other national retailers.

Blake Lively’s Betty Booze Faced Retail Concerns Amid Backlash

MEGA

The expansion of Betty Booze came with commercial ambitions that depended on retailers and other business partners remaining comfortable with Lively’s public profile. 

Internal communications later revealed that the controversy surrounding her “It Ends With Us” press tour had reportedly created concerns among some companies associated with the drinks business.

Documents obtained by Us Magazine in May 2026 included a September 2024 email from a Betty Booze team member describing a conversation with a Kroger representative. 

The message indicated that the supermarket chain was monitoring the situation and anticipating possible consequences for the brand’s performance.

The email stated, “I just got off the phone with the SGWS Kroger VP, and the first thing he mentioned to me was that Betty Booze was just discussed … there is a negative taste in Kroger’s mouth based on the [Blake Lively] interview from the movie, and they said they will be closely monitoring sales on the brand.”

The correspondence also described concerns from Princess Cruises, another business associated with the brand. 

A message attributed to its vice president of food and beverage read, “By the way our legal ethics and compliance committee board spooked with Blake !!! I am working things out hopefully will not have any affect.”

Separate communications involving Brightline reportedly showed that a proposed marketing partnership had also encountered hesitation. The company’s executive vice president wrote, “Transparently they want to hold for a minute until some of the [Blake Lively] chatter can be turned down. I’ll circle back when I hear more.”

The documents formed part of Lively’s evidence in her legal dispute with Justin Baldoni, which ended in a settlement in May 2026.