Justin Baldoni has continued his public feud with his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively by releasing a list of texts he claims she ‘excluded’ from her lawsuit against him.
In 2024, Lively filed her initial lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging sexual harassment and a 'social manipulation' campaign against her, with the director issuing a follow-up lawsuit against the actor, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and a publicist in January for a number of grievances, including defamation.
Following this, Baldoni has released raw footage of a scene from the film, as well as nine text messages which he claims 'proves' he's been defamed in a 'smear campaign'.
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Both Lively and Baldoni's legal teams have denied the accusations made in both lawsuits, with Baldoni's team calling the initial allegations from the Gossip Girl star 'categorically false', while Lively's team called it 'another chapter in the abuser's playbook'.
In response to the leaked footage, her legal reps claimed they believe 'every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint'.
And yesterday (3 February), both teams made their appearance in court for a pretrial meeting, with the trial's official date to be on 9 March, 2026.
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In the latest update prior to yesterday’s court date however, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, released a website titled ‘TheLawsuitInfo’, in which it included a detailed 126 page timeline of ‘relevant events’ including numerous leaked text messages.
Lively's attorney, Michael Gottlieb told The Daily Mail the website was created to 'influence proceedings and the public perception' of the case with 'inflammatory content'.
Amongst these is a series of text exchanges which Baldoni accuses Lively of taking out of context in her civil complaint against him.
“The truth is your defence”
One text exchange shown reveals Justin Baldoni and his PR team, specifically a PR manager named Jennifer Abel, discussing a ‘document’ he has been sent about Blake Lively, which was labelled ‘scenario planning’.
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This includes Baldoni saying he is ‘not in love with the document they sent’ and is ‘not sure [he’s] feeling the protection [he] felt on the call.’
Baldoni eventually says he feels 'like there is not much defense and also them feeling strong like she’s going to do something just a bit concerning what everyone had originally thought'.
Screenshots from Baldoni then allege the next message from Abel was cut off in this exchange.
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The next message reads: “The truth is your defence. You have done nothing wrong and there is over a year worth of facts and paper trails and people who can go on background as your defence.
“This document is an overview… we need to prepare as if she will also go through any great lengths with press.” Baldoni responds to the long message with a heart and queries whether a lawyer has been hired.
“He wants to feel like she can be buried”
Another text exchange occurs between Jennifer Abel, who deals with Baldoni’s PR, and his longtime publicist Melissa Nathan.
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This includes the line 'he wants to feel like she can be buried', and Nathan texting 'we can’t write it down to him, we can’t write we will destroy her, we will go to this, we will do this'.
Baldoni alleges that Lively’s complaint cuts out the following message in the exchange, as well as several others viewable below (though hard to make out the exact words of).
One message he alleges was cut, in response to ‘we can’t write we will destroy her, is: “Of course not. But I told him that’s the point of talking through.”
Another text, discussing the document, discusses how Baldoni has to ‘look at it as an information document for us to be armed with… imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands’.
Baldoni again alleges that the complaint cuts out the message sent directly after, saying: “The work is not the document. The work is the f**king crisis lol.”
Finally, Lively’s complaint includes Melissa Nathan saying “you know we can bury anyone but I can’t write that to him, I will, I’ll be very tough.”
What Baldoni claims it excludes, however, is what that message is responding to, Abel saying: “If it’s any consolation he’s like this with everything. Over thinks. Stresses. High anxiety. He just needs to be educated on how this process works.”
“Doesn’t matter if it’s not true”
The next section to mention alleged excluded text messages focuses on a discussion between Abel and Nathan again.
In Lively’s complaint, it is perhaps the most damning of all the text messages included, alleging it proves that Baldoni’s team planted fake stories to damage Lively's reputation.
This includes a message in which they reference ‘limited pick up on Daily Mail or Page Six’.
This is followed by a series of messages, such as ‘the majority of socials are so pro Justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol’, and ‘he doesn’t realise how lucky he is right now we need to press on just how f**king lucky.’
Finally, another message from Lively’s complaint is Melissa Nathan saying: “The whispering in the area the sexual connotations like Jesus f**king Christ.
"Other members feeling uncomfortable watching it I mean there is just so much.”
Baldoni, however, alleges this whole exchange is them simply ‘monitoring’ chatter about the situation.
He includes over 40 messages he alleges came between the first and second messages from Lively’s complaint, many of which include Nathan and Abel trying to surpress any stories coming out about the situation whatever.
He further alleges that the message immediately after the one in which they discuss ‘sexual connotations’ is one that says ‘doesn’t matter if it’s not true’ about Lively’s complaints, with Abel responding: “I know I don’t think they get that, they think the truth wins.”
“Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?”
The final set of messages which Baldoni claims Lively omitted to remove context centred around a Daily Mail article titled “Is Blake Lively set to be CANCELLED?”
This article revealed an old interview with Kjersti Flaa, a journalist who'd come out to reveal a 'bad' experience with Lively during an interview in 2016.
In addition, the piece sums up a common criticism that the film’s PR and marketing strategy was not focusing on the domestic violence topic present in the movie.
In Blake Lively’s complaint, the article is sent, with Abel responding: “Wow, you really outdid yourself with this piece,” to which Nathan responded saying: “That’s why you hired me right? I’m the best.”
In Baldoni’s claimed version of events, this omitted a screenshot in which Nathan said to a reporter: “Damm this is unfair because it’s also not me. Everything now looks like it’s me. Maybe not to you.”
The reporter responded saying: “No it totally does look like his side!”
In addition, they claim an upside-down smiley face emoji (often known to be used to convey sarcasm) was omitted after Abel says ‘you really outdid yourself with this piece’.
They claim the entire exchange was sarcastic, going on to show texts of Baldoni asking for confirmation that his team were not behind the stories, saying in one message: “It’s organic she’s blown herself up by her own actions.”
The trial will continue, with the judge presiding over matters claiming he would be forced to move matters forward if it continued to be 'litigated in the press'.
Representatives for Blake Lively did not respond to a request for comment by the LADbible Group.
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Film, TV and Film, Ryan Reynolds, Celebrity
Michael Slavin