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Justin Baldoni Clint Brewer Photography / FlightRisk / BACKGRID
Justin Baldoni is focusing on his family amid his messy legal drama with Blake Lively.
Baldoni, 40, his wife, Emily Baldoni, and their daughter Maiya, 9, and son Maxwell, 7, were spotted on a getaway to Hawaii over the weekend. A shirtless Baldoni jumped into the water with his kids and was all smiles while enjoying the trip.
The excursion came days after Baldoni’s studio filed a lawsuit on Thursday, January 16, against Lively, 37, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, seeking $400 million in damages. The lawsuit included accusations of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and other claims.
“We’re grateful to be with the family, man,” Baldoni told photographers at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, January 17. “We have amazing friends and family and faith.”
Creating movie magic on the big screen often requires a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind the scenes to pull all the threads together. While the ideal end result for a movie is an entertainment seamlessly brought to life (that also makes the people involved a lot of money in the process), sometimes things […]
Before the newest development in the case, Baldoni and Lively made headlines for their feud when she filed paperwork in December accusing him of sexual harassment, creating a “hostile work environment” and causing her “severe emotional distress” while working together.
Blake Lively NDZ/Star Max/GC Images
In a statement to The New York Times, Lively stated, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Baldoni’s legal counsel, however, called Lively’s claims “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.” Bryan Freedman alleged in a statement to Us Weekly that Lively filed the lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” regarding the production of It Ends With Us.
Freedman went on to claim that Lively made “multiple demands and threats” during the film’s production, which included “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
More recently, Baldoni was among 10 plaintiffs who launched a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s accusations. A spokesperson for the The New York Times told Us that the outlet is planning to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
Blake Lively and 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 swirling of an alleged feud between the pair. Fans noticed that Lively was promoting the movie with some of her costars while Baldoni, who […]
Freedman addressed Baldoni’s lawsuit for civil extortion, telling Us earlier this month, “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.”
The statement continued, “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.”
Lively, meanwhile, responded via her legal team to Baldoni’s studio suing her, Sloane and Reynolds, 48.
“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. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender,” the statement read. “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.”
Justin Baldoni’s legal battle with It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively continues with a brand-new explosive lawsuit. According to the filing obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, Baldoni, 40, is accusing Lively, 37, her publicist, Leslie Sloane, and Ryan Reynolds of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and other claims. […]
Lively’s legal team accused Baldoni’s team of trying to “shift” the focus.
“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. 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,” the statement continued.
The statement concluded: “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.”
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