Justin Baldoni
Greg Doherty/Getty ImagesJustin Baldoni He is leaning on his loved ones amid his ongoing legal battle Blake Lively.
“Thank you for having a family, man,” Baldoni, 40, told photographers on Friday, January 17, at Los Angeles International Airport in a video obtained by TMZ. “We have amazing friends and family and faith.”
Baldoni shares daughter Maiya, 9, and son Maxwell, 7, with his wife, Emily. According to photos published by TMZ, Baldoni was joined by his children on Friday.
A day earlier, news broke that Baldoni named Lively, 37, in a $400 million lawsuit. In the filing, the findings of UsBaldoni’s legal team claimed that Lively “was willing to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to cover up her “tone-deaf” promotion of the film.
Update 1/16/25 at 12:43 pm ET: Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios has filed a $400 million lawsuit against It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, Thursday, January 16. In a 179-page filing obtained by Us Weekly, Baldoni said Lively was “willing” to make him “a real life villain in his story.” […]
Baldoni directed and starred in 2024 It ends with usconversion of Colleen Hoovera novel about an abusive relationship. Lively also starred in the film, portraying the main character Lily Bloom, and served as an executive producer. (Baldoni played Lily’s husband, Ryle Kincaid.)
A few months after the film premiered in August 2024, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and fostering a “hostile work environment.” He also said in his December 2024 case that Baldoni tried to put together a concentrated campaign to destroy his reputation.
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on a large amount of undisputed evidence that describes Blake Lively and her team’s efforts to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their companies by spreading false, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said the statement to Us Thursday, January 16. “It is clear based on our willingness to provide all the complete messages, emails, videos and other written evidence shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will regret. Blake Lively may have been grossly misled by her party or willfully misrepresented the truth.” “
Freedman continued, “Ms. Lively will no longer be allowed to continue to exploit real victims of real abuse just to gain her own reputation at the expense of the powerless. Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team tried to damage their reputation and livelihood for extremely selfish reasons with their dangerous media manipulation before taking any real legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, the documents don’t lie.”
Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against the New York Times has shed further light on the apparent creative differences between him and It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively. Baldoni, 40, is suing The Times for $250 million, alleging invasion of privacy and invasion of privacy over the newspaper’s reporting on Lively who accused him of sex. […]
Lively, through a spokesperson, denied that in a statement.
“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its partners is another chapter in the abuser’s playbook. “This is an old story: A woman comes forward with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser tries to turn the tables on the victim,” said Lively’s lawyers. Us in the statement. “This is what experts call DARVO. Refuse. An attack. Reverse the Victim Offender. Wayfarer has chosen to use the resources of its billionaire founder to issue statements to the media, file baseless lawsuits, and threaten lawsuits that will overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation for allegations of sexual harassment.”
Lively’s lawyers also claimed that Baldwin’s camp was “trying to change the narrative” by falsely claiming that she took over the production job and split between It ends with us thrown into Baldoni.
“The evidence will show that the cast and others had negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” Lively’s statement continued. “The evidence will also show that Sony asked Mrs. Lively oversaw the cut of the film for Sony, who then picked it up for distribution and it was a resounding success. Their reaction to allegations of sexual abuse: he wanted it, his fault. Their explanation for why this happened to her: look at what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy to attack this woman is difficult, it does not contradict the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
Baldoni’s team has not responded to Lively’s response. Us has reached the comment.