A huge new development has emerged in the escalating conflict between It Ends With Us stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, adding to their seemingly endless legal battles.
In a dramatic move, Baldoni has launched a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her spouse Ryan Reynolds, publicist Leslie Sloane, and her PR firm, citing defamation and extortion claims. This case stands separate from Baldoni’s existing $250 million defamation suit against The New York Times, which published an explosive article about an alleged smear campaign targeting Lively that she claims Baldoni and his associates orchestrated.
Baldoni’s legal team filed the latest legal action on January 16 in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit represents Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel, crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, and Baldoni’s production company.
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” said Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman in a statement to People. “It is clear based on our own all out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
In December 2024, preceding the Times article’s publication, Lively filed sexual harassment charges against Baldoni regarding incidents on their film set, It Ends With Us. She additionally claimed that Baldoni’s team orchestrated a campaign to damage her reputation through “social manipulation.” The lawsuit detailed Lively’s demands to Baldoni, including “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
While public sentiment in the Baldoni-Lively dispute has fluctuated throughout the controversy, the New York Times report prompted many to question whether an alleged smear campaign had influenced them. The ultimate verdict rests with the New York and California courts rather than public opinion.
That said, Baldoni’s career in Hollywood is over. These two lawsuits for $250 million and $400 million — come on. I mean. No one in Hollywood is going to want to hire this man again.
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