In the ongoing conflict between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, Lively has recently explained her decision to withdraw her claim of ’emotional distress’ against Baldoni. The 37-year-old actress stated that she made this choice in order to facilitate the resolution process, emphasizing her commitment to resolving the dispute amicably.
Lively clarified that her withdrawal of the claim was not prompted by any reluctance to share sensitive medical information, such as therapy notes, despite Baldoni’s efforts to compel her to disclose such records. She asserted that her decision was driven by a genuine desire to streamline the legal proceedings and reach a resolution efficiently.
Lively’s lawyers branded the suggestion as ‘frivolous’ and a ‘false and plainly improper public relations stunt’ by Baldoni’s camp.
The actress also claims Baldoni is ‘desperately’ trying to ‘make a show’ out of her decision to seek to retract some of her claims.
The revelations appear in new court documents exclusively obtained by the Daily Mail.
The court will now decide whether to dismiss the emotional distress claims or compel Lively to hand over information related to her mental health.
After Lively’s move to drop the emotional distress claim, Baldoni attempted to push for access to her medical records, characterizing her decision as a publicity maneuver. Lively, in response, rebuffed these allegations, denouncing Baldoni’s actions as baseless and intended to manipulate public perception.
Lively said she chose to withdraw her emotional distress claim against Justin Baldoni to ‘streamline the process’ of their long-running legal spat
Lively’s lawyers also claim Baldoni’s team have created an ‘unnecessary escalation’, by ‘disingenuously’ claiming she was refusing to participate in discovery.
According to Lively’s camp, both sides participated in a virtual meeting on Monday, but did not discuss Baldoni plans to file a bombshell court letter later that day alleging Lively’s team had refused their ‘reasonable request that the withdrawal of [the emotional distress] claims be with prejudice’.
Lively’s team say at no point during the Monday metting were any objections or concerns raised regarding the embattled actress’s revisions to her claims.
‘Instead, they rushed to this Court to file this clearly pre-written Motion the minute that the teleconference concluded,’ court documents state.
‘It is based on two brazenly false assertions. First, they claim that Ms. Lively has “refused” to disclose medical and mental health information, but as counsel for the Wayfarer Parties concede, that information is relevant only to Ms. Lively’s stand-alone tort-based emotional distress claims that she indicated she was withdrawing.
‘To suggest that Ms. Lively has “refused” to produce anything (in either her written discovery responses, in the parties’ conference, or anytime thereafter) in connection with these claims is intentionally misleading to the Court and their intended audience for this false record: the public.’
The duo have been locked in a tense legal battle over incidents which occurred during the creation of their film It Ends With Us, which is based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover
Lively’s team say she has already agreed to withdraw a second claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress, and that Baldoni’s team have no right to demand records from her.
Her team are now demanding that Baldoni’s motion be dismissed, branding it ‘abusive’ and ‘improper’.
It comes after the Daily Mail revealed that his team are insisting the mom-of-four is trying ‘to have it both ways’ and that she complies with their ‘reasonable’ request to see her medical documents.
‘The Motion was filed for a single audience: the media. There is nothing for this Court to compel,’ Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb wrote to the court.
Contrary to Lively’s filing, an insider told the Daily Mail that Lively’s lawyers had hoped to quietly ditch the emotional distress elements of the lawsuit to dodge having her records scrutinized.
Lively’s team told the Daily Mail: ‘Once again this is a routine part of the litigation process that is being used as a press stunt.
‘We are doing what trial lawyers do: preparing our case for trial by streamlining and focusing it; they are doing what they do: desperately seeking another tired round of tabloid coverage.
‘Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims.’
Although the actress has now dropped the emotional distress claims, Baldoni will still have to defend himself over her other claims which include sexual harassment and the orchestration of a smear campaign against her
Lively had claimed that the emotional distress allegedly inflicted on her by Baldoni had, ‘severely impacted her physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing’ – all of which could show up in her health records if true.
Baldoni now has two fewer claims to defend himself against, but could face the same accusations again, after the actress demanded to drop the claims without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled.
Baldoni will still have to defend himself over her other claims which include sexual harassment and the orchestration of a smear campaign against her.
The 41-year-old is also pursuing a $400 million defamation countersuit of his own which accuses the glamorous blonde of damaging his reputation and career.
Lively’s withdrawal is the latest twist in a tsunami of legal developments that in recent weeks has seen the warring pair battle it out over his attempt to subpoena her one-time bestie, Taylor Swift.
Swift, 36, was dragged into the saga in January due to a now-notorious claim by Baldoni that Lively referred to the megastar and husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, as ‘my dragons’ and threatened to unleash them upon him if he refused to go along with her changes to a scene.
According to a legal letter sent along with the subpoena, Lively allegedly threatened to leak a decade’s worth of text messages if Swift failed to issue a statement in support of her.
Baldoni, 41, is also pursuing a $400M defamation countersuit of his own that accusing glamorous blonde of damaging his reputation and career
Taylor Swift, 36, was dragged into the saga in January due to Baldoni’s claim that Lively referred to the megastar and husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, as ‘my dragons’ and threatened to unleash them upon him if he refused to go along with her changes to a scene
Livlely has been the subject of a deluge of negative headlines for months and has seen her friendship with Swift publicly deteriorate.
Some of her allegations have begun to look increasingly dubious, including the claim that Baldoni nuzzled her neck and told her, ‘you smell so good’ during a dancing scene.
Although Lively claimed it had been filmed with microphones off, the Daily Mail obtained raw footage that showed the sound was on and that the conversation had instead been about the scent of Lively’s fake tan.
She has also faced scrutiny over some of her team’s legal maneuvers; among them a shell lawsuit filed in October that was used as the basis to subpoena Baldoni’s ex-publicist Stephanie Jones for a phone used by her former employee Jennifer Abel.
