There’s a new development in the ongoing feud between It Ends With Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively and the legal back-and-forth that seems never-ending. This time, Baldoni has sued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, as well as publicist Leslie Sloane and her PR company, to the tune of $400 million for alleged defamation and extortion. This is not to be confused with Baldoni’s $250 million defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, which published a bombshell report on an alleged smear campaign against Lively, which the actor says was perpetrated by Baldoni and his team.
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Attorneys for Baldoni filed this latest lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds on January 16 in the Southern District of New York. The suit was filed on behalf of Baldoni, as well as producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel, crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, and Baldoni’s production company.
“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,” said Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman in a statement to People. “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.”
So far, Lively and Reynolds have yet to release a statement in response to the latest legal filing.
Back in December 2024, before the Times article was published, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni for sexual harassment on the set of their film, It Ends With Us, and further alleged that Baldoni’s team had set out to destroy her reputation through “social manipulation.” The suit included a list of demands Lively made of Baldoni, including, “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake’s weight, and no further mention of Blake’s dead father.”
