Justin Baldoni's lawyer issues statement claiming 'real reason' Blake Lively settled bitter lawsuit
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively settled their million dollar lawsuit just weeks before they were set to go to trial in New York, but Baldoni’s lawyer has already taken aim at the Gossip Girl actor.
Baldoni and Lively’s feud has been rumbling on since December of 2024 when Lively filed a bombshell lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and accusing her It Ends With Us co-star and director of creating a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni hit back soon after, filing his own suit (which was later dismissed) and publishing a website with numerous text messages that he claimed exonerated him.
Just weeks before the pair were set to take the stand in a high profile trial however they both agreed to a settlement, with Baldoni and Lively even releasing a joint statement.
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Bryan Freedman, the lawyer who has led Baldoni’s scorched earth legal defence, has hit back however just a week after the settlement.
Speaking to TMZ, Freedman accused Lively of settling because she was unwilling to take the witness stand and face a cross-examination from Baldoni’s team.
He said: “Part of the reason Blake settled is because she was scared to take the witness stand at trial. She did not want to face cross examination by anyone because that would require her to tell the truth."
He went on to accuse her of lying, adding: "Blake lied about telling Sony to destroy the dailies. She lied that she never told Colleen Hoover to unfollow Justin Baldoni. In her deposition, Colleen said Blake asked her to unfollow him. And there were more lies."
The lawyer finally added: “Bottom line … Blake filed a claim for $300 million and she ended up with nothing. If this is a resounding victory, what does a defeat look like?
"If she’s doing this for survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment and retaliation as she says, then why don’t you take the stand at trial and prove it to the world?
“A trial would have exposed her lies and the entire smear she was talking about in her interviews that she did."
Lively’s legal team seemed unimpressed by Freedman’s attack in their statement to TMZ however, simply saying: “I guess he’s no longer ‘ecstatic’ about the settlement.”
What did the joint statement released by Blake Lively and Baldoni say after the lawsuit was settled?
The full statement released by Lively and Baldoni said: “The end product – the movie It Ends With Us – is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors – and all survivors – is a goal that we stand behind.
"We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard.
"We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
What had Lively claimed happened on the set of the film?
Lively had accused the director of sexually harassing her on the set of the film, alleging that he made comments which made her uncomfortable as well as 'improvising' intimate moments in scenes that she said had not been discussed. She also accused Baldoni of adding 'improvised gratuitous sexual content and/or scenes involving nudity into the film', including scenes in which she was expected to 'orgasm on-camera', after she had already signed onto the role.
She also accused Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath of a 'lack of boundaries', including claiming that Heath had shown her a fully nude video of his wife giving birth without her consent.
Lively also alleged that he had made comments about her weight, contacting her personal trainer to try and ask if she could lose weight for a scene in which she had to lift her just months after she gave birth. She also said that Baldoni had claimed to be able to 'communicate with the dead', namely her deceased father.
The pair clashed on the set of the film, taking their feud public after the fact (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Her legal filling suggested that, when she raised these complains against Baldoni and the wider productions, he engaged in an online smear campaign against her, hiring crisis PR management.
The filing, published by the New York Times, included text messages between Baldoni's team, PR veteran Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan.
This included Abel telling Nathan Baldoni 'wants to feel like she can be buried', and the teams celebrating when negative stories began cropping up about Lively.
What were Baldoni's claims to counter Lively's legal filing?
Baldoni denied these claims, himself releasing a massive online document of text messages and emails he claimed vindicated his side of the story and disproved her legal filing.
They suggested that the texts released in the filing by the New York Times were taken out of context.
The director suggested that the feud actually started due to a creative disagreement surrounding editing of the film, claiming that she had fallen out with him after trying to wrestle control of the movie.
Baldoni's legal team also released video footage he claimed vindicated him, though others suggested it showed Lively visibly uncomfortable.
He also alleged that Ryan Reynolds had confronted him at his and Lively's home, suggesting that the actor had confronted him, saying: "How dare you f***ing ask about my wife's weight? What's wrong with you?" Baldoni suggests this was aggressive, and also alleged that Reynolds parodied him in Deadpool and Wolverine with a character called 'Nicepool' who is a faux feminist with a manbun.
Baldoni claimed that Reynolds also attempted to have him fired by his agency, suggesting that he confronted an executive at WME and called the director a 'sexual predator'.
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Ryan Reynolds, TV and Film, Celebrity
Michael Slavin