On New Year’s Eve 2024,Blake Livelyfiled a second lawsuit against herIt Ends with Usdirector and co-starJustin Baldoni, just as Baldoni filed a $250 million libel suit againstThe New York Timesover their reporting of Lively’s first complaint. Formal court dates are still pending.
Earlier in December 2024, Lively filed a suit with the California Civil Rights Commission, alleging Baldoni sexually harassed her and fostered a toxic work environment on the set ofIt Ends with Us. She also alleges that Baldoni, his publicist Jennifer Abel and crisis PR Melissa Nathan planned a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation.
This new suit, filed in New York federal courts, doubles down on these allegations and formally targets Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios. It also seeks both “punitive” and “compensatory” damages from the defendants, whom Lively insists caused her “mental pain and anguish,” as well as “severe and serious emotional distress” and “lost wages.”
In astatement to theDaily Mail, Lively’s attorneys allege the actress has endured “further retaliation and attacks” since she made the “decision to speak out.” They continued:
“As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court.”
Lively’s lawyers also promise that while the litigation was brought about in New York, “where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place,” they reserved “the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
Blake Lively Lawsuit Takes a Wild Turn as Justin Baldoni’s Ex-Publicist Files Her Own Suit
In a story that continues to evolve with each passing hour, Justin Baldoni’s ex-publicist is now suing in the never-ending ‘It Ends With Us’ debacle.
Baldoni’s Times Suit Claims Ignorance of Lively’s Complaints
Baldoni’s suit against the Times alleges Lively and the “Gray Lady” were in cahoots, and that the newspaper’s article “cherry-picked and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” Furthermore, the suit asserts “the Times' complicity arises from its apparent endorsement of the criminal alteration of these text messages by Lively.”
The lawsuit further alleges Baldoni and his team never saw the list of requirements to resume filming onIt Ends with Usthat Lively submitted to Wayfarer. It claims Baldoni and Wayfarer first saw this list in Lively’s initial California Civil Rights Commission complaint, and that the requirements include “references to highly disturbing events that never occurred.”
In response to Baldoni’s suit, Lively’s attorney’stoldDeadline, “Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively’s California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint, filed earlier today.”
Baldoni and Lively were both represented by talented agency William Morris Endeavor until WME dropped Baldoni on June 14, 2025. They’ll continue to represent Lively as well as her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who allegedly “berated” Baldoni during a August 19, 2025 meeting during which Lively says she presented her list of requirements.
Several of Lively’s colleagues in Hollywood havecome to her defense, including director Paul Feig, Lively’s formerSisterhood of the Traveling Pantsco-stars,It Ends with Usauthor Colleen Hoover, as well asKate Beckinsale, who has never met Lively, but claims toknow all too wellhow studios attempt to silence and demonize women who speak out.
It Ends With Us
Based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel, It Ends With Us is a drama-romance film directed by Justin Baldoni. The film follows a recent college graduate named Lily, who meets a man named Ryle and falls in love with him. However, a traumatic incident compounded with her former high-school sweetheart re-entering her life complicates her plans.
