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Justin Baldoni's strategist and publicist Jennifer Abel has reportedly revealed her side of the story after being named in Blake Lively’s lawsuit. The suit has accused Baldoni of s*xual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against Lively, on the sets of It Ends With Us.
It also has excerpts of text messages seemingly exchanged among Baldoni, Abel, and his crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. The DMs allegedly revealed the three discussing strategies to discredit Blake Lively and contained the words, “bury” and “destroy,” among others.
In the wake of this, Jennifer Abel has allegedly broken her silence and shared her version of the story. Taking to a PR and marketing Facebook group defending the Gossip Girl actress, Abel wrote how, unlike Blake’s claims, there was “no ‘smear’ implemented.”
“I was notified at the start of the campaign that the opposing team had been planting horrible stories about my client as ‘fail safe’ if my client did not comply with the demands set forth for the campaign,” Abel shared.
She added:
“My sole job was to put together interviews, screening opportunities, and speaking opportunities for my client in support of the film, a standard scope of work. I did my job.”
Abel, who's the founder and CEO of RWA Communications, also added that she had no idea that her “private” texts and emails would be included in a public lawsuit, until the New York Times contacted her on the night of December 20. Jennifer also claimed to have never been subpoenaed.
Exploring Jennifer Abel’s statement amid Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni
Justin Baldoni’s publicist, Jennifer Abel, reportedly discussed her side of the story amid Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, the director and co-actor in her latest movie, It Ends With Us.
“I never thought the day would come when I needed to defend myself with my own peers, but this certainly has been an interesting, and devastating quite frankly… It was clear this was a coordinated effort, but nothing we haven’t seen before since I’ve been working in talent PR now for 15 years now,” she began.
Jennifer claimed that the New York Times contacted her with receipts of the documents on Friday night, after having seemingly reviewed several pages of it, containing her “correspondence” with Justin Baldoni and Melissa Nathan. However, this “correspondence” was something she had “never seen” before.
Abel further claimed how she recently left her previous firm where her former team and boss had access to her work “emails” and “phone.”
“You can deduce from that what you will. What the cherry-picked messages don’t include, although not shockingly as it doesn’t fit the narrative… No negative press was ever facilitated, no social combat plan, although we were prepared for it as it’s our job to be prepared for any scenario,” Abel wrote.
She continued:
“We didn’t have to implement anything because the internet was doing the work for us. Sure we talked about it, contemplated if we needed certain things flagged accounts that we needed to monitor, worked with a social team to help us stay on top of the narrative so we could act quickly if needed.”
Justin Baldoni’s publicist explained how they “rejoiced and joked” that fans were recognizing their clients’ hard work “without us having to do anything.” However, they tried to keep their heads “down” and “focus” on the positives. She mentioned “sophomorically” revealing, joking, and privately sharing the internet’s “feedback” with one another, including with “the woman whose team was making our lives incredibly difficult over the course of the campaign.”
“I’m human. The long hours, months of preparation, on top of my day to day scope… if felt good to see that although we were prepared, we didn’t have to do anything over the top to protect our client…” Jennifer wrote.
However, according to her, they were forced to change tactics once the “opposing team” reportedly tried to sabotage her client of five years, Justin Baldoni. Jennifer Abel claimed that she decided to “stand by” Baldoni and not the alleged “victim” Blake Lively after “reviewing” the evidence, facts, hard proof, and more that she came upon against him.
Abel also mentioned that she made her decision because Justin Baldoni had “dedicated” his life to the “equal treatment of others, especially women.” Jennifer continued to describe Justin in a positive light, who reportedly never treated others badly, and had a “wonderful community and team” – all of whom held the “same moral fortitude.”
“As representatives, we all have to make that choice. So, I did that to the best of my ability, and felt good about our efforts. I my client perfect? No. In fact, he says that he’s not perfect so constantly to the point I tell him he needs to be less self-deprecating because it could be taken the wrong way,” Abel added.
The publicist wrapped up by stating she would not comment on Blake’s feelings and whether or not they are “valid.” However, she would also not “slam” a woman for “speaking her truth.” Jennifer Abel claimed that if what Lively was “claiming” turned out to be false, and she had “evidence” to prove that, she as a “representative” would do what she felt was “right.”
The "untraceable" text messages allegedly exchanged between Jennifer Abel, Melissa Nathan, and Justin Baldoni, and included in Blake Lively’s lawsuit against him have various revelations. For instance, in one, Abel seemingly told Nathan how their online campaign in favor of Justin was “so freaking good” that it was “a total success.”
In response, Nathan reportedly stated, "The majority of socials are so pro-Justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol." Additionally, they allegedly planted “pieces” of how “horrible” Lively “is to work with,” and seemingly told the editor of a major news outlet that they were “ready” to run narratives against her.
The alleged text chain also mentioned a man named Jed Wallace, whom Nathan reportedly credited as the one who pushed the shift in narrative about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on social media. In one alleged text, Melissa even shared how it proved people were still eager to “hate on women.”
The lawsuit has accused Baldoni of reportedly watching Blake Lively get changed, sharing his s*xual exploits on set, and showing her the video of his wife, n*ked, among other things. Justin Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman has referred to the suit as "false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt," in a statement to TMZ.
