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Justin Baldoni Greg Doherty/Getty Images
Justin Baldoni is leaning on his loved ones amid his ongoing legal battle against Blake Lively.
“We’re grateful to be with the family, man,” Baldoni, 40, told photographers on Friday, January 17, at Los Angeles International Airport in a video obtained by TMZ. “We have amazing friends and family and faith.”
Baldoni shares daughter Maiya, 9, and son Maxwell, 7, with his wife, Emily. According to photos published by TMZ, Baldoni was joined by his brood on Friday.
One day prior, news broke that Baldoni named Lively, 37, in a $400 million lawsuit. In the filing, obtained by Us, Baldoni’s legal team claimed that Lively was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to mask her alleged “tone-deaf” promotion of the film.
UPDATE 1/16/25 at 12:43 p.m. ET: Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios filed a $400 million lawsuit against It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, on Thursday, January 16. In the 179-page filing obtained by Us Weekly, Baldoni claimed that Lively was “determined” to make him a “real-life villain in her story.” […]
Baldoni directed and starred in 2024’s It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel about an abusive relationship. Lively also starred in the film, portraying protagonist Lily Bloom, and served as an executive producer. (Baldoni played Lily’s husband, Ryle Kincaid.)
Months after the movie’s August 2024 premiere, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and fostering a “hostile work environment.” She also claimed in her December 2024 lawsuit that Baldoni attempted to coordinate a concentrated campaign to ruin her reputation.
“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,” Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement to Us on Thursday, January 16. “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.”
Freedman continued, “Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power. Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against The New York Times has shed even more light on the apparent creative differences between him and It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively. Baldoni, 40, is suing The Times for $250 million, alleging libel and false light invasion of privacy over the newspaper’s reporting on Lively suing him for sexual […]
Lively, through a spokesperson, denied the accusations in a statement.
“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” Lively’s lawyers told Us in a statement. “This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender. Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.”
Lively’s attorneys further claimed that Baldwin’s camp was “trying to shift the narrative” by falsely claiming she took over production and alienated the It Ends With Us cast from Baldoni.
“The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” Lively’s statement continued. “The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success. Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
Baldoni’s team has not responded to Lively’s response. Us has reached out for comment.
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