Explanation of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s Alleged Fate and Law

Blake Lively a Justin Baldoni‘s reported rift made headlines months before the It Ends With Us costars filed lawsuits.

While Lively and Baldoni promoted the film in August 2024, rumors began to swirl about an alleged feud between the pair. Fans noticed that Lively was promoting the film with some of her costars while Baldoni, who was the director of the film, did not line up for interviews or press opportunities. At the same time, Lively received backlash from fans for how she tackled the film’s theme of domestic violence. (It’s later provide domestic violence resources.)

Months later, The New York Times news broke that Lively had sued Baldoni for sexual harassment. Baldoni denied all accusations against him made in lawsuit December 2024obtained by Us Weekly.

Days later, Baldoni was among 10 plaintiffs who launched a $250 million lawsuits against The New York Times for his coverage of Lively’s accusations. (Spokesman on behalf of the The New York Times say Us that the outlet plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”)

Lively file a lawsuit the same day against Baldoni in a New York federal court that mirrored his earlier claims – filed with the California Department of Civil Rights.

Scroll down for an explanation of Lively and Baldoni’s alleged feud and lawsuits:

How Did the Alleged Fortune Begin?

In August 2024, speculation about a possible rift on set began to swirl after fans noticed that Lively had not followed Baldoni on Instagram – and neither had anyone else in the cast at the time. Fuel was added to the fire when Baldoni was conspicuously absent from joint press interviews.

At the press launch for the film, Lively revealed that her husband, Ryan Reynoldshave written part of the scene on the roof in It Ends With Us. In a separate interview, Baldoni commented that Lively should direct a sequel to the film. Both comments went viral on TikTok fueling the feud speculation. Source telling only Us at the time Lively and Baldoni had “creative differences” while filming the movie.

“There were two camps on the film – Blake’s team and Justin’s team,” the insider said. “It was this creative struggle that set the tone for the negative experience behind the scenes and it grew into the fact that they were no longer talking.”

Who Sues Who?

Months after the film was released in theaters (and the same month it went on Netflix), Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment. In the December 2024 lawsuit, Lively also accused Baldoni of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation.

In a statement to The New York Times of her lawsuit, Lively said, “I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about wrongdoing and help protect others who may have target them.”

Baldoni lawyer, Bryan Freedmancalled Lively’s accusations “absolutely false, outrageous and deliberately salacious” in a statement to Usclaiming that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “remake a narrative” about the film’s production.

Baldoni hit back days later with his own lawsuit, in which he was listed as one of the 10 plaintiffs suing The New York Times for $250 million after reporting on Lively’s lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Lively pursued a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni and “cherry picked” communications while leaving out key details.

A spokesman said The New York Times he said in a statement to Us that the publication stands by its story and plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement read. “Our story was told in detail and responsibly. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails we quote accurately and extensively in the article. Those text messages and emails were also the core of a discrimination claim filed in California by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni and his associates. “

The statement continued, “In order to address some inaccuracies in the legal proceedings, in seeking comments from Mr. Baldoni and others mentioned in the article, The Times share the information we intended to publish, including references to specific text messages and documents, ask them to point out any inaccuracies, provide additional context and speak to our team. He chose Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer and the other subjects not to have any conversation with them The Times or address any of the text messages or specific documents and instead send a joint response by email, published in full. (Also, they sent their response to The Times at 11:16 pm ET December 20th, not at 2:16 am ET December 21st as the complaint states.)”

Lively’s attorneys said Us that the lawsuit was based on a “clearly false premise,” while Baldoni’s attorney continues to deny any wrongdoing.

The same day, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in a New York court that mirrored her earlier claims, which were filed in California.

Who Said What?

Among several allegations in her lawsuit, Lively claimed that she not the only cast member to complain about Baldoni. Lively also claimed that a meeting – attended by Reynolds – held in January 2024 to address some of her concerns about It Ends With Us‘ production.

Some of Lively’s demands that were addressed included “no more showing Blake videos or nude images of women, no more talking about Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction’, no more discussions of sexual conquests in front of Blake and others , no further mention of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”

In the lawsuit filed by Baldoni with other plaintiffs, Lively’s accusations were addressed and countered with the actor’s interpretation of the events. One example is Lively being fat-shamed while Baldoni claimed he asked a trainer about Lively’s weight because of his back problems. Another example of the differing recollections of events involved Lively claiming that Baldoni had a “long fallout” that delayed production due to social media backlash to her outfits. Baldoni described the incident as “professional” and noted that although he “torn up briefly during the conversation,” he said it was “in response to what he believed was a genuine compliment from Lively.” He now believes the alleged comment was a “manipulation tactic.” A third example involved the allegation of “pornography” on set, which Baldoni claims was a photo of a home birth.

Among several other counterclaimsthe lawsuit alleged that key communications were omitted from The New York Times – like an emoji missing from the end of a text message – about an alleged effort by Baldoni’s team Melissa Nathan a Jennifer Abel to generate bad press for Lively.

In response to the lawsuit, Lively’s attorney said in a statement to Us that Baldoni’s allegations do not change anything about her accusations against him.

How Are Taylor Swift – and Others – Related to the Cute Lawsuit?

In Lively’s lawsuit, she former costars Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick a Ben Affleck they were referred to in an alleged “scenario planning” document drafted by Baldoni’s team. “The approach we recommend would be to provide the appropriate background information (listed in Scenario 1) to reporters who reach out for comments, if it is clear that they are referring to you, to ensure that their stories are balanced and the the speculation can be turned to another. of the many people she has had issues working with (Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, etc.),” the documents read. Hailey Bieber it was also referred to by Baldoni as an alleged “astroturfing” scheme against the actress while Lively’s friend Taylor Swift was also mentioned by his team referring to the pop star’s loyal fans.

Exhibits attached to the complaint showed that a crisis management specialist working for Baldoni wrote in an email in August 2024 that “we have seen the most innocuous issues become huge because of social events or the crises are not most have no impact on social at all. You can’t tell right now. But, BL has some of the same TS fan base so we’ll take it seriously.”

A separate “scenario planning” document from Baldoni’s side noted, “Our team can also explore planting stories about weaponizing feminism and how people like Taylor Swift have been accused of using these tactics to ‘bully’ to get what they want they want it.” (Baldoni’s lawsuit included a text from Abel that read, “This document is an overview … We need to prepare as if she also goes through any major trouble with the press. It it’s good if we all prepare for the worst outcome because then if and when it’s not that bad, we’re OVER ready.”)

Following Lively’s filing, other stars spoke out about their own experiences. In a December 2024 Instagram video, Kate Beckinsale remember a time when she was working on a project and was called names after raising concern about working with a costar. Beckinsale also claimed she was treated badly by someone on her own team. Abigail Breslin too defend Lively’s lawsuit after his own allegations against a former costar Aaron Eckhart made public in 2023.

Several stars were attached to the It Ends With Us set has too come on out and support Lively. Costar Jenny Slate said “the attack on Blake is horribly dark, disturbing, and utterly menacing,” while author Colleen Hoover to Lively i “never changing.”