Blake Lively has responded via her legal team to Justin Baldoni’s studio filing a new lawsuit against her, her publicist Leslie Sloan and her husband Ryan Reynolds.
The filing, obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, seeks damages of $400 million and accuses Lively, 37, of being “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to avert from her alleged “tone-deaf” promotion of It Ends With Us, the film which Baldoni, 40, and Lively worked on together. The lawsuit also contains accusations of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy among other claims.
Lively’s legal team hit back at the Baldoni camp’s “desperate” strategy, sharing a statement with Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16 in response.
“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 Studio Sues Blake Lively, Reynolds, Rep for $400 Million
Lively’s legal team accused Baldoni’s team of trying to “shift” the focus to Lively and away from Baldoni himself.
“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 read.
The statement continued: “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 alleged that the feud between him and Lively began in May 2023 when the film started. He claimed Lively created a “takeover strategy” while they battled for creative control.
The documents include emails between Baldoni and Lively before filming began, with Baldoni claiming Lively “expressed warm gratitude” for the preparation but believed she would attempt to gain control.
Baldoni alleged that Lively hadn’t read It Ends With Us. The lawsuit reads, “she even tried to Google the color of her character’s hair rather than pick up the book.”
Following the lawsuit, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, shared in a statement to Us, “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.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s Reported ‘It Ends With Us’ Drama Explained
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.”
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni for comment.
