Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s alleged feud and lawsuits explained

Blake Lively and Justin BaldoniThe reported rift made headlines months ago It ends with us costars filed lawsuits.

While Lively and Baldoni were promoting the film in August 2024, rumors of an alleged feud between the pair began to circulate. Fans noticed that Lively promoted the film with some of her co-stars, while Baldoni, who was the film’s director, did not join for interviews or press opportunities. At the same time, Lively received backlash from fans for addressing the topic of domestic violence in the film. (She later provided domestic violence resources.)

Months later, The New York Times broke the news that Lively had sued Baldoni for sexual harassment. Baldoni has denied all the allegations made against him December 2024 lawsuitwhich he obtained My Weekly.

A few days later, Baldoni was among 10 plaintiffs who launched a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times for covering Lively’s allegations. (Spokesperson for The New York Times he said Our that the outlet plans to “vigorously defend the lawsuit.”)

Live filed a lawsuit the same day against Baldoni in New York federal court, which echoed her earlier claims — which were filed with the California Office of Civil Rights.

Scroll down for an explanation of Lively and Baldoni’s alleged feud and lawsuits:

How did the alleged dispute begin?

In August 2024, speculation began of a potential rift in filming after fans noticed Lively wasn’t following Baldoni on Instagram — and neither was anyone else in the cast at the time. Fuel was added to the fire when Baldoni was noticeably absent from joint press interviews.

At the start of press for the film, Lively revealed that her husband, Ryan Reynoldswrote part of the rooftop scene in It ends with us. In a separate interview, Baldoni noted that Lively should direct the film’s sequel. Both remarks went viral on TikTok and fueled speculation of a feud. A source said exclusively Our at the time Lively and Baldoni had “creative differences” while shooting a movie.

“There were two camps in the movie — Team Blake and Team Justin,” the insider said. “This creative struggle set the tone for the negative experience behind the scenes and escalated into them stopping talking.”

Who is suing whom?

A month after the film was released in theaters (and the same month it went on Netflix), Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment. In a December 2024 lawsuit, Lively also accused Baldoni of launching a campaign of “social manipulation” against her to “destroy” her reputation.

In the statement to The New York Times of her lawsuit, Lively said, “I hope my legal action will help pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics designed to harm people who speak up about inappropriate behavior and help protect others who may be targeted.”

Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedmanin a statement, he called Lively’s allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally lewd.” Ourclaims that Lively filed the lawsuit to “correct her negative reputation” and “exaggerate the story” about the film’s production.

Baldoni hit back a few days later with his own lawsuit, listing him as one of 10 plaintiffs suing The New York Times for $250 million after reporting on Lively’s lawsuit. The suit alleged that Lively conducted a “strategic and manipulative” smear campaign against Baldoni and “cherry-picked” communications while omitting key details.

Spokesperson for The New York Times he said in a statement Our that the publication stands by its story and plans to “vigorously defend the lawsuit.”

“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” the statement said. “Our story has been carefully and responsibly described. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including text messages and emails, which we quote accurately and extensively in the article. Those texts and emails were also at the heart of a discrimination lawsuit filed in California by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni and his associates.

The statement continued: “In order to address some of the inaccuracies in the lawsuit, when I requested comments from Mr. Baldoni and others who would be mentioned in the article, The Times shared the information we intended to release, including links to specific text messages and documents, asked them to identify any inaccuracies, provide additional context, and speak with our team. Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer, and the other entities chose not to speak with them The Times or address any of the specific text messages or documents and instead email a joint response that has been published in full. (They also sent their response to The Times at 11:16 PM ET on December 20th, not 2:16 AM ET on December 21st as stated in the complaint.)

Lively’s lawyers said Our that the lawsuit was based on a “manifestly false premise,” while Baldoni’s lawyer continues to deny any wrongdoing.

That same day, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in New York court, mirroring her earlier claims that had been filed in California.

Who said what?

Among several claims in her lawsuit, Lively claimed she did he is not the only member of the cast to complain about Baldoni. Lively also claimed that a meeting was held in January 2024, attended by Reynolds, to address some of her concerns about It ends with us‘ production.

Some of Lively’s demands that were addressed included “no more showing nude videos or pictures of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,’ no more discussions of sexual conquest in front of Blake and others, no more mention of actors’ genitalia and staff, no more questions about Blake’s weight and no more mention of Blake’s dead father.’

In the lawsuit Baldoni filed with other plaintiffs, Lively’s allegations were addressed and countered by the actor’s interpretation of events. One example is Lively being shy, while Baldoni claimed he asked the trainer about Lively’s weight because of his back problems. Another example of different recollections of events involving Lively, she claimed that Baldoni had a “long outburst” that delayed production due to social media backlash over her costumes. Baldoni described the incident as “professional” and noted that while he “torn up briefly during the interview”, he said it was “in response to what he thought was a genuine compliment from Lively”. He now believes the alleged comment was a “manipulation tactic.” A third example involved claims of “pornography” in a shoot that Baldoni claims is a photograph of a home birth.

Between several other counterclaimsthe suit alleged that key communications were omitted The New York Times — like the emoticon missing from the end of the text message — regarding the alleged efforts of Baldoni’s team Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel create bad press for Lively.

In response to the lawsuit, Lively’s attorney said in a statement Our that Baldoni’s claim does nothing to change her allegations against him.

How does Taylor Swift — and others — relate to the lawsuit?

In Lively’s lawsuit, she former costars Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick and Ben Affleck they were mentioned in an alleged “scenario planning” document produced by Baldoni’s team. “Our recommended approach would be to provide reporters who ask for comment, if it’s clear he’s referring to you, with relevant background information (outlined in scenario 1) to ensure their stories are balanced and speculation can be diverted to another . of the many people she had issues with while working (Leighton Meester, Anna Kendrick, Ben Affleck, etc.),” the documentary reads. Hailey Bieber Baldoni also referred to him as an alleged “astroturfing” plot against the actress while Lively’s friend Taylor Swift he was too his team mentioned referring to the pop star’s loyal fans.

Exhibits attached to the complaint showed that a crisis management expert working for Baldoni wrote in an August 2024 email: “We have seen the most dangerous problems become huge because of social media, or that the biggest crises have no effect on social causes. You just can’t tell at this stage. But BL has the same fan base as TS, so we’ll take it extremely seriously.”

A separate “scenario planning” document by Baldoni noted, “Our team may also explore stories about weaponizing feminism and how people like Taylor Swift have been accused of using these tactics to ‘bully’ to get what they want.” (Baldoni the lawsuit included a text from Abel that read: “This document is an overview… We have to prepare as if it too has gone through the press for a very long time. It is good if we all prepare for the worst outcome because then and if it’s not that bad, we’re STILL ready.”)

After Lively’s submission, other stars spoke out with their own experiences. In an Instagram video from December 2024 Kate Beckinsale she recalled a time when she was working on a project and was called names after raising a concern about working with a costar. Beckinsale also claimed she was mistreated by someone on her own team. Abigail Breslin also defended Lively’s lawsuit following her own claims against a former costar Aaron Eckhart were published in 2023.

Several stars associated with It ends with us set to have as well come support Lively. Costar Jenny Slate said that “the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing and downright menacing”, while the author Colleen Hoover Lively said “never change.”