Justin Baldoni’s working relationships with his Hollywood colleagues have been under a microscope after Blake Lively accused him of misconduct on the set of 2024’s It Ends With Us.
Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment in December 2024, claiming that he caused her “severe emotional distress” and fostered a “hostile work environment” while they costarred in the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. (Lively and Baldoni played a couple in It Ends With Us, a movie about an abusive relationship that Baldoni also directed.)
According to Lively, Baldoni also allegedly launched a “social manipulation” campaign to destroy her career and reputation. He vehemently denied the accusations, subsequently filing a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times for publishing Lively’s claims.
Baldoni launched his film career in 2008, six years before landing his breakout role in The CW’s Jane The Virgin opposite Gina Rodriguez, Brett Dier and Yael Grobglas.
What ‘It Ends With Us’ Cast Has Said About Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni
Keep scrolling to revisit everything Baldoni’s past and present costars have said about their working relationships:
Gina Rodriguez
Rodriguez and Baldoni played an on-off couple on Jane The Virgin, which ran for five seasons on The CW. On the show, their characters met after Rodriguez’s Jane was artificially inseminated with a frozen sample belonging to Rafael (Baldoni).
After the series wrapped, they remained close with Baldoni even officiating Rodriguez’s 2019 wedding to Joe LoCicero. In an Instagram post from the ceremony, she called Baldoni her “soul brother.”
Nearly five years later, Rodriguez opened up to Us Weekly about their friendship and her hopes to get him on her and Shaquille O’Neal’s Lucky 13 game show.
“Justin is super busy, but Justin is also one of my closest friends and we talk all the time,” Rodriguez exclusively told Us in August 2024. “I could get him to come on the show.”
Yael Grobglas
Grobglas played Rafael’s wife, Petra, during the early seasons of Jane The Virgin.
“I think we started filming and just had a wonderful time,” she recalled during a 2015 press junket for the CW telenovela.
Baldoni has also stayed in touch with Grobglas since the series wrapped. In fact, the Israeli performer and their costar Brett Dier watched It Ends With Us in theaters in August 2024.
“Our genius friend @justinbaldoni made a phenomenal film. I cried an embarrassing amount and tried to hide it but probably failed,” she gushed via Instagram. “I am so proud of you and I love you, friend!!!!”
Baldoni replied at the time, writing, “This makes my heart burst. I love you both so much 
.”
Justin Baldoni and Gina Rodriguez’s Friendship Timeline
Brett Dier
Dier and Baldoni both played Jane’s love interests on Jane the Virgin, but a rivalry did not extend off-camera.
“We had a lot of good times on that show together,” Dier said during a November 2023 episode of Baldoni’s “Man Enough” podcast. “Honestly, it was great because Justin let me be myself fully and that’s why I had such a great time with you. The second I was like, ‘Oh, I can joke with this guy and be an idiot,’ I was, like, ‘I love him.’ ‘Cause that’s all we really want, right, is people who make you feel like you can be yourself? Justin really made me feel like I could be myself.”
Blake Lively
Lively was cast as protagonist Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us in 2022. After filming wrapped two years later, rumors swirled that there was a rift between the actress and Baldoni. Neither star publicly addressed the apparent feud — but noticeably did not do press together — until Lively filed her lawsuit in December 2024.
In court documents, Lively claimed that Baldoni wanted to add “gratuitous” sex scenes to the script, improvised unwanted kissing and frequently discussed his personal intimate life and previous pornography addiction.
“Mr. Baldoni insisted to Ms. Lively that women give birth naked, and that his wife had ‘ripped her clothes off’ during labor,” the docs read. “He claimed it was ‘not normal’ for women to remain in their hospital gowns while giving birth. Ms. Lively disagreed, but felt forced into a compromise that she would be naked from below the chest down.”
Lively also alleged that Baldoni weight-shamed her so soon after giving birth to baby No. 4. (Lively shares four children with husband Ryan Reynolds.)
Baldoni denied the allegations with his attorney, Bryan Freedman, telling Us in a statement that the claims were “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and the court motion was allegedly filed to “fix her negative reputation” and “rehash a narrative” regarding the film’s production.
Freedman also claimed to Us that Lively made “multiple demands and threats” while filming It Ends With Us, including “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.”
Baldoni and his publicity team later filed a lawsuit against the New York Times for libel and false light invasion or privacy, claiming that the newspaper “cherry-picked” messages for inclusion that omitted context.
“In this vicious smear campaign fully orchestrated by Blake Lively and her team, the New York Times cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful ‘untouchable’ Hollywood elites, disregarding journalistic practices and ethics once befitting of the revered publication by using doctored and manipulated texts and intentionally omitting texts which dispute their chosen PR narrative,” Freedman said in a statement. “In doing so, they pre-determined the outcome of their story, and aided and abetted their own devastating PR smear campaign designed to revitalize Lively’s self-induced floundering public image and counter the organic groundswell of criticism amongst the online public. The irony is rich.”
He continued: “Make no mistake however, as we all unite to take down The NY Times by no longer allowing them to deceive the public, we will continue this campaign of authenticity by also suing those individuals who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients. While their side embraces partial truths, we embrace the full truth – and have all of the communications to back it. The public will decide for themselves as they did when this first began.”
Both The Times and Lively denied the accusations.
“This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer, and that litigation was never her ultimate goal,” Lively’s attorney said.
Celebs Who Have Spoken Out About Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni Lawsuit
Anonymous ‘It Ends With Us’ Costars
In Lively’s lawsuit, she claimed that a handful of other female cast and crew working on It Ends With Us had vocalized complaints against Baldoni.
“As a result of Mr. Baldoni’s behavior, on May 29, 2023, another cast member lodged a sexual harassment complaint about Mr. Baldoni’s ‘gross’ and ‘unwanted comment[s]’ towards her and others,” the filing reads.
None of the colleagues have publicly revealed their identities.
Haley Lu Richardson
Baldoni later cast Dier’s then-fiancée, White Lotus alum Richardson, in 2019’s Five Feet Apart.
“I have known Justin for a while and watched [his viral marriage proposal video to wife Emily as] my introduction,” Richardson recalled to Access Hollywood in March 2019. “Brett came home and he was like, ‘This guy is too good to be true. I like him, but you have to watch this.’ First, I was like, ‘OK, Justin,’ and then I actually got into it and cried a lot.”
Cole Sprouse
Richardson starred alongside Sprouse in the adaptation of Rachael Lippincott’s YA novel of the same name about two teenage cystic fibrosis patients.
“I think a lot of my nerves had been cleared after I met Justin. When you’re taking on an illness like cystic fibrosis, the nature of the film industry might be to romanticize it in a way that would do a disservice to the community,” Sprouse told Refinery29 in March 2019. “Justin, as a director and individual, has had so much experience with the CF community, and had so much passion for the community for so long, that he eased a lot of those [fears]. I knew he would bring awareness to cystic fibrosis and do that justice.”
He added, “As an actor, we have to put a lot of faith into people, because we’re oftentimes bound by the writing, direction, or parts of the production cycle we have nothing to do with. Justin knew exactly what he wanted, and we were on the same page.”
