When It Ends With Us came out in August, it was accompanied by a flurry of press-tour drama that seemed to point to a messy rift between the movie’s star, Blake Lively, and her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni. The film managed to pull in $351 million globally, and most of us forgot about whatever had happened until December, when Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni. She accused him, his production company and business partner, and several PR experts of mounting a smear campaign against her after she complained about sexual harassment on set.
Lively’s filing, a precursor to a lawsuit, included thousands of text messages and emails that were reportedly obtained through a subpoena. The New York Times also published a report based off her claims, co-bylined by prominent Me Too reporter Megan Twohey. The messages appear to show Baldoni and his PR team communicating in detail about a plan to damage Lively’s reputation — because, she claims, he was worried about her airing her issues with his on-set behavior during the press tour.
Since then, things have really spiraled out of control. Baldoni sued the New York Times for defamation; a few hours later, Lively escalated things, too, officially suing Baldoni for sexual harassment and retaliation. Now, Baldoni is suing Lively right back, accusing her of fabricating her claims to save her reputation. The two are now locked in a protracted court battle that involves a seemingly endless stream of leaked text conversations, emails, and behind-the-scenes movie materials. It’s also become a war of reputations, with each claiming the other one is the villain. Here’s what’s happened so far.
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What is Blake Lively accusing Justin Baldoni of?
Lively’s legal complaint paints an alarming picture of Baldoni’s alleged behavior during It Ends With Us’s filming. She accuses him of sexual harassment, including improvising unwanted kissing and looking at her while she was topless having her body makeup removed after she asked him to look away. She claims he discussed his sex life, including encounters he said may not have been consensual, and showed her a naked video of his wife. Lively also wrote that both Baldoni and Heath repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including while she was breastfeeding.
Before It Ends With Us resumed production after the writers strike in November 2023, Lively’s legal team sent a side letter to Wayfarer referring to concerns she said she’d “repeatedly conveyed” and requesting safeguards for a return to set, including an intimacy coordinator, a ban on discussions of personal sexual experiences, and a stunt double for scenes depicting sexual violence. In January, her filing says, she met with Baldoni, Heath, and other producers and was told that the company’s “perspective differs in many aspects” but that “ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount.” By the spring, the complaint says, on-set conditions had improved with the safeguards in place.
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Who is Melissa Nathan, and why is she involved?
A lot of what Lively claims happened next unfolded in texts her complaint says were exchanged between Baldoni, his longtime PR rep Jennifer Abel, and notorious crisis-PR expert Melissa Nathan — who is best known for having worked with Johnny Depp during his defamation trial against Amber Heard. According to the filing, Baldoni was concerned from the jump — one May text from him to Abel allegedly says, of the complaints Lively voiced during filming, “We should have a plan for IF she does the same when the movie comes out.” Closer to the film’s release, Lively, other cast members, and It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover reportedly told Sony they didn’t want to do any appearances with Baldoni.
By August 2, the claim says, Nathan had sent a planning document with media talking points, encouraging Baldoni to suggest that Lively had seized creative control using an imbalance of power. According to texts that appear in the complaint, Baldoni wrote that he was “not in love” with this plan, and Abel sent a text to Nathan that said, “He wants to feel like she can be buried.” Nathan appears to have responded that she couldn’t send over all the specifics of her company’s plan, “because that could get us in a lot of trouble. We can’t write we will destroy her.” But she allegedly assured Abel in writing, “You know we can bury anyone.”
At some point, Lively’s filing alleges, Baldoni sent Abel a social-media thread accusing a celebrity of bullying and wrote, “This is what we would need,” prompting Nathan to start texting about “social account take downs.” A few days later, the suit says, they brought Jed Wallace onboard, a crisis-management expert whose since-deleted LinkedIn page reportedly described him as a “hired gun” with a “proprietary formula for defining artists and trends.” With Wallace involved, Lively’s complaint claims, Nathan’s team employed a strategy known as “astroturfing,” which involves planting social-media posts to make it seem like a sentiment — in this case, public distaste for Lively — has developed organically. On August 10, the complaint says, one of Nathan’s employees texted her that “we’ve started to see shift on social, due largely to Jed and his team’s efforts.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly came from Baldoni’s team and what was, in the words used in text messages shown in the suit, “amplified” and “boosted.” According to the Times, one brand-marketing consultant who did an analysis of Google’s search index in August suspected the media environment around Lively’s name was being manipulated and found that she had been the subject of a “targeted, multichannel online attack.”
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So then Baldoni sued the New York Times?
In a statement to the Times, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, called Lively’s allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and accused her of making “yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation.” Baldoni’s studio, Wayfarer, told the Times that it “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” against Lively.
Following the Times’ report, Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs, including Nathan and Abel, filed a $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times for libel and false-light invasion of privacy. In the complaint, lawyers for the plaintiffs claim that the Times relied on “cherry-picked” evidence and “Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative.” In a statement to Variety, the Times maintained that the story was “meticulously and responsibly reported.”
On the same day Baldoni’s suit — which claimed Lively never intended to pursue formal legal action — was filed in Los Angeles, Lively officially filed a lawsuit against him in New York, using the complaint she had previously filed with the California Civil Rights Department. She’s suing him for sexual harassment and the alleged smear campaign waged against her in the press. Nathan, Abel, and Heath are also named as defendants.
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And Baldoni is suing her back?
Not to be outdone, Baldoni’s team filed yet another lawsuit two weeks later in mid-January — this one against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicists. In a $400 million extortion and defamation claim, he accused Lively of seizing control of the movie and misrepresenting the prolonged on-set and postproduction drama to save her reputation. According to Baldoni’s version of the story, Lively used her famous husband and friends (one unredacted text refers to someone named “Taylor,” which may or may not be Taylor Swift) to pressure Baldoni into making script changes she wanted and releasing her cut of the movie. He claims she then used Baldoni as a “scapegoat” for her “publicly tainted image” by “falsely claiming that he had sexually harassed her.”
In a statement, Lively’s legal team called Baldoni’s countersuit “another chapter in the abuser playbook.” At the end of January, they moved to have Baldoni’s suit dismissed.
A few days later, Lively’s team opened a separate deposition in Texas against Jed Wallace, the man who she claims played a key role in Baldoni’s astroturfing smear campaign. It’s unclear if the filing will turn into a new lawsuit.
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What’s this about a gag order?
Lively and Baldoni’s battle officially spilled beyond the confines of a courtroom when Baldoni’s attorney released ten minutes of footage from behind the scenes of It Ends With Us to TMZ, telling the outlet it “completely refutes” Lively’s sexual-harassment allegations. Lively’s legal team swiftly fired back, telling Deadline, “Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damning evidence against him, but the video itself is damning.”
Shortly after the video was released, Baldoni’s legal team also told People they’ll be launching a website to publish all their evidence they claim contradicts Lively’s claims. In turn, Lively’s team volleyed back with a letter addressed to the case’s judge (which was reviewed by the Cut), arguing that Baldoni and his attorney’s ongoing “retaliatory media and online campaign” violated New York law by litigating the case outside the court.
So … how does this end?
On Monday, the back-and-forth churned on: An apologetic voice-note Baldoni purportedly sent to Lively in 2023 was leaked to the Daily Mail, followed by another filing from Lively’s team (reviewed by the Cut) accusing Baldoni’s attorney of trying to taint potential jurors. Shortly afterward, the case’s judge reportedly set a trial date for March 2026. In documents reviewed by the Cut, he also set an early February meeting to discuss pretrial publicity and attorney conduct.
This post has been updated.