Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
Many of us heard of or saw the movie “It Ends With Us” based on Colleen Hoover’s novel with the same title when it was released over the summer. Justin Baldoni not only starred in the movie alongside Blake Lively, but he also directed it and it was produced by Wayfarer Studios, which he also happens to own.
Recently Lively and Baldoni have been at opposing sides of a lawsuit. Lively first sued Baldoni, who then responded with a countersuit against Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for defamation and extortion. He is seeking damages of at least $400 million.
According to AP News, an order was given by New York Federal Judge Lewis J. Liman and both sides need to prepare for a trial date of March 9th 2026 and an initial conference to mid-February of this year.
Lively’s lawyers filed a motion claiming that one of Baldoni’s lawyers, Bryan Freedman, was trying to taint jurors against her. In a statement obtained by AP News Freedman had this to say: “irony is not lost on anyone that Mrs. Lively is so petrified of the truth that she has moved to gag it. We will always respect the court; however, we will never be bullied by those suggesting we cannot defend our clients with pure, unedited facts. All we want is for people to see the actual text messages that directly contradict her allegations, video footage that clearly shows there was no sexual harassment and all the other powerful evidence that directly contradicts any false allegations.” Baldoni has created a website called “The Lawsuit” Info which has the amended complaint and a timeline of events up to this point. The timeline of the lawsuits are hard to follow so here’s a breakdown:
It all started on August 9th 2024 when the movie was released and promotions for it started. Lively was called out on the internet for her tone deaf methods of promoting the film which centers on domestic violence. Lively decided that the right time to promote her new hair care line was while promoting “It Ends With Us.” She also encouraged people to see the movie and wear florals while doing so. The feud however started a few days later after Baldoni hired the same crisis management PR team Johnny Depp used when he was sued by Amber Heard.
According to The Independent, a Norwegian journalist named Kjersti Flaa posted a clip of an interview she did with Lively years prior with the title “The Blake Lively Interview That Made Me Want To Quit My Job.” In the clip Lively is seen being rude to the interviewer who congratulated her little bump by saying “Congrats on your little bump” before ultimately ignoring her and focusing on her co-star Parker Posey.
In early December Baldoni was awarded the 2024 Voice of Solidarity Award at a Vital Voices event. A few days before Christmas, Lively filed her lawsuit and on Christmas Eve, Vital Voices rescinded Baldoni’s award. Lively is claiming that Baldoni was incredibly inappropriate while on set filming the movie while Baldoni is claiming that the lawsuit is an attempt by Lively to fix her negative reputation.
In some of the texts released Lively refers to herself as “Kahleesi” and refers to Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift as her dragons in a text telling Baldoni he could benefit from her monsters. Lively claims that Baldoni fat shamed her when he asked a trainer about how much Lively weighs due to a scene that required him to lift her and he allegedly wanted to make sure he could lift her safely without further injuries to his back. Other celebrities such as America Ferrera, Gwenyth Paltrow, and Colleen Hoover have voiced their support for Lively.
Lively’s Lawyers told The Independent this in a statement “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.” Right now it is unclear what is the truth and what is not. We will have to wait until March of 2026 to find out the ending unless something happens in the interim.
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