Justin Baldoni defends himself against accusations from Blake Lively: Allegations that her team tarnished his reputation, used WhatsApp messages as weapons, and lawsuit is a strategy to improve her image. Exclusive report by ALISON BOSHOFF.

There is a temporary ceasefire in the ongoing conflict between Hollywood actress Blake Lively and her co-star Justin Baldoni from the movie “It Ends With Us.” This break in hostilities is not due to a heartwarming moment of reconciliation but rather because the courts are closed for the holiday season.

Last Friday, just before the holiday break, shocking news surfaced that 37-year-old Lively, known for her role in the TV series “Gossip Girl” and marriage to actor Ryan Reynolds, had filed an extensive 80-page legal complaint against Baldoni.

The complaint included allegations that 40-year-old Baldoni intruded into Lively’s makeup trailer while she was partially undressed, exposed her to explicit content, such as pornographic images and a graphic birth video of his wife, openly discussed his struggles with pornography, made inappropriate remarks about his own genitalia, and engaged in inappropriate physical contact by biting and sucking on Lively’s lips during an improvised kissing scene that he insisted on reshooting multiple times.

Her lawsuit also alleged Baldoni claimed he was ‘speaking to’ Lively’s dead father and fat-shamed the actress by asking about her weight. It further claimed that Baldoni’s PR team had attempted to smear Lively’s reputation, citing a text message from his publicist Melissa Nathan which read: ‘We can bury anyone.’

The furore made headlines around the world with The New York Times publishing a 4,000-word article titled ‘Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine’ within a few hours of the documents being filed.

The film, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover, was released in August and was a box office hit, grossing more than $350 million against a $25 million production budget. It follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni, who also directed the movie. 

But the bitter feud that has erupted between Lively and Baldoni has ensured that the film will most likely be remembered for its off-screen drama than its commercial success.

Rumours of a falling out started simmering online over the summer after they appeared to avoid each other during the movie’s promotional tour and hit fever pitch just over a week ago when Lively’s lawsuit dropped. And it seems the war is only just beginning.

For I can reveal that Baldoni’s team are not giving up without a fight. As soon as the courts reopen after New Year on Thursday, an explosive counter lawsuit will be filed by Baldoni, his business partner Jamey Heath and the publicists named in Lively’s complaint.

This will say that it is Lively’s side who were responsible for smears against Baldoni, rather than the other way around and claim that apparently damning emails, texts and WhatsApp messages from Baldoni’s publicists have been presented in a way that changes their meaning.

The counterclaim will also allege that Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane, one of Hollywood’s most influential women, tried to smear Baldoni by planting stories with numerous news organisations.

The nub of the legal action which Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman has spent the past few days preparing is that Lively’s complaint, unusually submitted to the California Civil Rights Department rather than a court, is a ploy to rebuild her public image.

It will be claimed that an admittedly poor working relationship with Baldoni and a misconceived marketing strategy to sell a movie about domestic abuse suitable for a fun ‘girls’ night out’ became a social media frenzy in which millions of people turned detective to delve into the evident froideur between Lively and Baldoni.

Their poor relationship on set was no secret. Baldoni’s team contend that the ‘Blake-lash’ grew online of its own accord, with previous alleged mis-steps like Lively’s 2012 wedding to Reynolds being held on a former slave plantation and her bitchy behaviour to reporter Kjersti Flaa during a 2016 TV interview coming to light organically, rather than being planted to discredit the actress, as her team claim.

What everyone wants to know is this: is Blake Lively a diva? Or is Justin Baldoni a creep? Or could both of these things be true?

A source who was involved in the situation tells me: ‘Do you seriously think that Blake Lively, married to one of the most powerful men in town and represented by one of the most powerful publicists, is going to sit meekly by if she is sexually harassed on a film set, and then hang on for four months after the film is released before making a complaint? It makes no sense.’

The source adds: ‘Look, they never got on. Justin is very spiritual and a kind of unusual person. He is what you might call ‘hippie dippie’. He thinks he can talk to dead people. Would he have said that he had spoken to Blake’s dead father? Yes absolutely. Did he harass her? He says not.

‘They rubbed each other up the wrong way. She has taken bits of conversations which they had when he was trying to be her friend, when they were friendly, and weaponised them.’

Baldoni, who was born in LA and has two children with his 40-year old wife Emily, a Swedish actress, started out as a TV actor before moving into film and directing. His counterclaim says that on January 4 this year, shortly before filming on the project resumed, Lively demanded an ‘all hands’ meeting to address what her legal complaint describes as the ‘hostile environment’ on set.

Lively didn’t attend the meeting alone, calling on her husband Reynolds, 48, with whom she has four children. Also in attendance was Jamey Heath, Baldoni’s business partner and the film’s producer, as well as a representative from Sony, the film’s distributor.

The meeting concluded with a list of 30 ‘rules’ being drawn up, signed and implemented for the remainder of the shoot – all based on incidents that had allegedly happened on set. The new ‘rules’ for production stated that Lively should be replaced by an ‘A-list stunt double’ for scenes involving ‘rape and/or violence’ with Baldoni.

They also said that Baldoni must not add any new ‘sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing’ which weren’t in the previously agreed script, and that an intimacy co-ordinator should be employed on set whenever the two stars shared a scene. Other demands included Baldoni stop claiming he was ‘speaking to’ Lively’s dead father and that he stop asking about her weight.

Baldoni, via his company Wayfarer Studios, appeared to agree to the demands, writing in a formal response letter: ‘Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount irrespective of differing viewpoints. 

‘Regarding your outlined requests, we find most of them not only reasonable but also essential for the benefit of all parties involved.’ Filming restarted on January 5 and concluded on February 9. No further instances of harassment are recorded in Lively’s complaint.

However, highly unusually, after filming was complete Lively seized control of the movie from Baldoni. She hired her own editor – who had recently worked on her husband’s superhero smash hit Deadpool & Wolverine and is also the godfather of her son – to produce a final version of the film independently of Baldoni.

Ahead of the film’s premiere on August 6, Lively and a number of her co-stars, as well as the book’s author Hoover, said they wouldn’t do any press alongside Baldoni.

At this point, says Lively, Baldoni began a malicious campaign of ‘social manipulation’ to ‘destroy’ her reputation, hiring crisis communications specialist Melissa Nathan, who had helped revive the image of beleaguered actor Johnny Depp, and PR Jennifer Abel.

She said that Baldoni and his team then orchestrated a global smear campaign against her, including what is known as ‘astroturfing’ – spreading online malice from apparently legitimate accounts – which his team will deny. 

In a statement via her attorney, Lively said: ‘I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.’

She was backed by Amber Heard, herself a victim of global trolling during her two court cases involving ex-husband Johnny Depp, by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, by the SAG-AFTRA union, and by the film’s distributors Sony Pictures, who said in a statement: ‘We have previously expressed our support for Blake in connection with her work on and for the film. We fully and firmly reiterate that support today.

‘Further, we strongly condemn any reputational attacks on her. Any such attacks have no place in our business or in a civil society.’

Baldoni was dropped by his agents at WME, who continue to represent Lively and Reynolds, and had an allyship award in recognition of his support of women from global non-profit organisation Vital Voices taken away. His podcast partner also quit their joint venture. Over the space of a long weekend, he has been comprehensively cancelled.

But now the fightback begins. Baldoni’s camp say that they have proof that untrue stories about him were touted around town by Lively’s publicist, Leslie Sloane.

One of these stories claimed that Baldoni was the subject of three complaints to his film company’s HR team. His lawyer Bryan Freedman will say that this is untrue. Sources indicate that they have a ‘smoking gun’ which they believe proves that Sloane was involved.

When approached yesterday, Sloane told the Mail that it was a journalist who had contacted her about the complaints to HR about Baldoni after receiving an anonymous tip-off.

She said: ‘After that, I was contacted by various press outlets asking about allegations of HR complaints. When contacted, I responded to press questions by referring them to Wayfarer

or Sony. It’s clear that Mr Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates are suggesting that I originated press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false.’

Whatever the truth, this will cause a meltdown in Hollywood as it will be the juiciest and dirtiest peek into the underbelly of Hollywood’s publicity machine in decades, and involves some of the biggest hitters in town.

For her part, in her lengthy complaint Lively claims that Sloane – who is not named in the lawsuit and referred to only as her ‘publicist’ – had no idea at all about what was going on during or after filming. 

Her filing reads: ‘Lively neither publicly commented nor directed any of her representatives to comment or engage with the print media, social media or otherwise about the hostile environment Mr Baldoni, Mr Heath and (their company) Wayfarer created.

‘Indeed throughout the time period discussed herein Ms Lively did not provide her publicist with details about the hostile work environment that she along with other cast and crew had experienced.’

The countersuit will also say that accusations of a smear levelled at crisis PRs Melissa Nathan and Jen Abel are, in themselves, smears. Nathan and Abel will contend that text exchanges between them have been edited and presented in a way that gives an inaccurate and damning impression.

In a fascinating twist, the messages in question have come from Abel’s mobile phone

handset which she turned over when leaving the employ of yet another feared Hollywood PR, Stephanie Jones.

It seems that Jones, who was at that time actually under contract to Baldoni’s Wayfarer, then handed them over to Lively’s team. Lawyers for Lively confirm they obtained them via a subpoena order made against Jones.

Here matters become murkier still as there is a question of whether the subpoena was a ‘cover’ for Jones to pursue a grudge against Abel, her one-time employee who left.

Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman says that Jones took her employee’s phone and used its contents to arm Lively’s team, because Wayfarer had told her they wanted to end their contract with her company, Jonesworks.

‘Faced with losing yet another client, [Jones] resorted to her well-reported tactics and attempted to decimate her own client,’ he told one U.S. publication yesterday.

Jones is now suing Baldoni for allegedly breaching a contract to pay her $25,000 a month from May 2025 and claiming that Abel and Nathan orchestrated the smear campaign against Lively behind her back. 

A source says: ‘The people who say that Blake Lively was the victim of a smear campaign are running one themselves. We have a great deal of evidence from emails and WhatsApps and other records which will show that this is the case.’

A representative for Jones told the Mail: ‘For months, this group has gaslit and disparaged Stephanie Jones and her company for financial gain, to settle personal scores and most recently to distract from their disgraceful smearing of Blake Lively.

‘This lawsuit is a necessary step to stop defendants’ continuing misconduct and for Steph to recover the reputation she has worked decades to establish and which the defendants disparaged for their own nefarious purposes.’

As Matt Belloni of the Hollywood industry bible Puck says, it’s the most compelling story in Hollywood. He wrote on Thursday: ‘This saga is far from over. We’re about to get a look behind the curtain of Hollywood’s smear machines — and yes, I used the plural.’