If you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing drama surrounding It Ends with Us, you know the film has been plagued by tension and controversy involving its leading star, Blake Lively, and her co-star and director, Justin Baldoni. The situation escalated recently when Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing him of harassment and fostering a hostile work environment.
Following this, Baldoni and several of the film’s producers, publicists and others close to the situation sued The New York Times over what they described as a “defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader.”
Baldoni also sued Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million, saying that the couple has attempted “to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” according to the actor’s lawyer Bryan Freedman.
Then, in an effort to help move his case further along, Baldoni and his team released a behind-the-scenes video of him interacting with Lively on set.
Then, in an effort to help move his case further along, Baldoni and his team released a behind-the-scenes video of him interacting with Lively on set.
Following that, a voice memo sent to Lively from Balodni was released to the media, and in it, the actor seemingly apologizes to her for being a “very flawed man.” It is unclear as of publication who leaked the video, but a week after that Baldoni’s team created a website to expose texts sent between him and Lively. He also shared notes from the movie’s alleged intimacy coordinator.
Most recently, Lively was once again sued by Jed Wallace and his crisis management firm, Street Relations, Inc. Wallace was also involved with the Baldoni lawsuit against the actress.
We have all the information about Wallace’s lawsuit, the intimacy coordinator’s notes and the latest update on Baldoni and Lively’s lawsuit, including the trial date below.
What to know about Jed Wallace’s lawsuit against Blake Lively
Wallace and his crisis management firm are suing Lively on the grounds of defamation. It came after the actress requested a deposition from him, which was later denied.
Wallace is currently suing Lively for $7 million and said that “he didn’t engage in harassment or retaliation against the actress,” despite her claiming he did.
Lively’s team has responded to the lawsuit, saying,”Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively ‘into oblivion’ for speaking out against sexual harassment and retaliation.”
It is unclear as of publication if Wallace’s case will go to trial.
Justin Baldoni shares notes from intimacy coordinator
Days before Wallace announced his lawsuit, Baldoni’s team released a note that their claim was from the film’s intimacy coordinator—which Lively said the film didn’t have until she demanded one.
The notes feature some pretty crass language, including things like “foreplay,” “goes down on her,” and even “orgasm.”
“These notes would later become the basis for Lively’s complaint, in which she states that Baldoni would talk about his own sex life and insert gratuitous scenes with Lively’s character orgasming,” Baldoi’s team wrote in the initial filings.
The notes also claim that Baldoni offered Livey a meeting with the coordinator, to which she replied, “I feel good. I can meet her when we start 🙂 Thank you, though!”
As of publication, Lively’s team has not commented on the notes.
What the leaked voice memo reveals
In the leaked voice memo—reportedly recorded in May 2023 and obtained by The Daily Mail—Baldoni can be heard apologizing and then thanking Lilvey for her proposed changes to the script.
“I’m really sorry. I for sure fell short, and you worked really hard on that,” Baldoni said. “And the way you framed it and how that made you feel, I just want to say thank you for sharing that with me
That takes a lot of trust and vulnerability. I feel really grateful that you feel safe enough to tell me that’s how you feel and share that with me. I’m really sorry, I f*ck*d up.”
In the memo, Baldoni can also be heard telling Lively that he’s “really looking forward to spending time together, and I believe that’s going to go a long way for our chemistry, which I believe is there. It’s been there from the start so I was so d*mn excited when you agreed to do this film. I believe it comes from us both being so hard working and having a vision.”
Neither Lively nor Baldoni has commented on the voice memo.
Behind-the-scenes video sparks controversy
The behind-the-scenes video—obtained by TMZ—showcases Lively and Baldoni dancing and talking about things like their spouses, noses and spray tans.
Now, normally, a behind-the-scenes video wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but in both Baldoni and Lively’s lawsuits, each of them references the moment.
According to Baldoni “Lively took them out of character again and began to joke about Baldoni’s nose, which he laughed off and joked in turn, even as Lively joked that he should get plastic surgery. Lively incorrectly alleges that this scene was filmed without sound. Baldoni was wearing a microphone, and the entire exchange is captured on camera.”
On the other hand, Lively claimed that while filming that particular scene her costar/director “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘it smells so good’… When Ms. Lively later objected to this behavior, Mr. Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.’”
In the video, however, viewers learn that both statements have some validity since Lively joked about Baldoni’s nose, but in exchange, he also can be seen kissing both her lips and neck and telling her “It smells good” after Lively told him she was probably getting her spray tan on him.
Lively’s team has commented on the video, telling PEOPLE, “Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter.”
They also filed a letter motion for conference against Baldoni’s team, saying that the video was used to “continue the campaign of retaliation,” which they claim the actor’s team has done “virtually every day since” Lively filed her lawsuit back in December 2024.
Lively’s team also claimed in the letter that Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, “has given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information (including, remarkably, documents as banal as document preservation demands to third parties) to the Hollywood press and tabloid media” in an effort to “not only continue the campaign of retaliation that was the subject of Ms. Lively’s First Cease and Desist, but they contain numerous new false statements about Ms. Lively and others.”
“His conduct threatens to, and will, materially prejudice both the Lively Case and the Wayfarer Case by tainting the jury pool, because his statements are deliberately aimed at undermining the ‘character, credibility, [and] reputation’ of numerous relevant parties.”
As of publication, aside from the initial release, Baldoni’s team hasn’t commented on the video or the letter motion for conference.
The latest news on Justin Baldoni’s two lawsuits
Baldoni is currently suing both The New York Times and Lively in two separate lawsuits, claiming that both parties distributed information to the public in an attempt to ruin his reputation.
Baldoni, along with publicist Jed Wallace, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, as well as producers Jamey Heath and Steve Sarowitz, announced that they would be suing The New York Times for their expose article ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine—published on Saturday, December 2, 2024. They claimed in the December 31, 2024, filing that the article “encapsulated in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader.” They refuted the article’s premise, which claimed the plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory public relations campaign against Lively for speaking out about harassment, calling it “categorically false and easily disproven.”
The New York Times responded, saying, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
As of publication, nothing further has developed in regards to Baldoni’s lawsuit against the international newspaper.
Baldoni’s other lawsuit against Lively, her husband Reynolds, the couple’s publicist Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s PR firm, Vision PR, was announced on January 17, 2025, with the actor suing them for $400 million on the grounds of defamation and extortion.
“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni,” his lawyer said in a statement.
“It is clear, based on our own all-out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real-time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
“We want the truth to be out there. We want the documents to be out there. We want people to make their determination based on receipts.”
Lively’s legal team responded to the lawsuit soon after it was announced, saying, “The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate; it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”
The latest on Blake Lively’s lawsuit
Lively has filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging that he created a “ hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production.” She claims in the lawsuit that Baldoni added in several “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved,” and once “was caressing Ms. Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles.”
During those unplanned scenes, Lively claims that Baldoni told her that he was “not even attracted” to her after she tried to stop this sort of behavior from happening.
Additionally, Lively’s lawsuit accuses Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath of pressuring her to film nude scenes that were neither included in the script nor part of her contract. According to the complaint, during a scene where her character gives birth, the men “suddenly pressured Ms. Lively to simulate full nudity.”
Lively claims ‘It Ends with Us’ backlash was calculated
Lively also claimed that both Baldoni and Heath exploited post-release backlash to damage her reputation, allegedly creating and promoting negative content about her. The complaint states, “They engaged in the same techniques to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”
Baldoni has yet to publicly comment on the allegations but has since been dropped by his talent agency, WME. A lawyer on retainer for his production company, Wayfarer, told The New York Times in response that he believes the “claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.” Meanwhile, WME confirmed that the decision to part ways with Baldoni was not influenced by either Lively or her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds.
Colleen Hoover’s support for Blake Lively
Colleen Hoover, who wrote the It Ends with Us book and was heavily involved in the production and press of the film, took to Instagram over the weekend of December 28, 2024, to voice her support for Lively, writing, “@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
The author also linked to an article written by The New York Times, which showcased various text messages detailing how Baldoni, Heath and a crisis management expert named Melissa Nathan allegedly tried to ruin Lively’s reputation, with Nathan reportedly saying, “You know we can bury anyone.”
Hoover has yet to comment on Baldoni’s lawsuits as of publication, but did deactivate her Instagram account.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: trial date set amid feud
On Monday, January 27, it was announced that Lively and Baldoni would appear in court on March 9, 2026, to discuss and debate their separate lawsuits. Before that, the two will appear in a pre-trial hearing on Monday, February 3 to discuss Lively’s gag order against Baldoni, which was issued after the actor’s team leaked the behind-the-scenes video.
The history behind the ‘It Ends with Us’ lawsuit
During and after the film’s press tour back in August 2024, fans were quick to notice that Baldoni was absent from cast interviews and events. Furthermore, the internet also noticed that none of the cast followed Baldoni on Instagram.
Perhaps the largest part of the drama came from how the two leading actors promoted the film. While Baldoni promoted the film as a story about domestic assault awareness, Lively faced criticism for presenting it as a lighter, floral-themed movie, though some now view her approach as a coping mechanism amid on-set difficulties.
Cast members Jenny Slater and Brandon Skelner have publicly supported Lively, with Skelner stating, “The women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance, and choosing a better life.”
He continued, “Trust me when I tell you, there isn’t a single person involved in the making of this film who was not aware of the responsibility we had in making this. A responsibility to all the women who have experienced generational trauma–Domestic abuse–Or struggle with looking in the mirror and loving who they see.”
Lively also commented on why she decided to move forward with the lawsuit, telling The New York Times, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”