On Thursday, January 16, 2025, Justin Baldoni filed a lawsuit against Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, after Blake sued him with s*xual harassment allegations. The lawsuit sought $400 million in damages with claims of civil extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy, as per reports by BBC.
Text messages and emails between Baldoni and Lively had also been revealed. The messages included seemingly friendly interactions between Justin and Blake during pre-production. In one text, Blake even made references to Taylor Swift.
From the alleged texts that are being circulated across X, it was revealed that two editors and Baldoni did not get to see Blake Lively's cut of the movie. One of the editors allegedly told Justin:
"I have just been told that we are not permitted to look."
In further messages, editors allegedly mentioned that Justin's cut was better than the one done by Blake. According to Stylecaster, one of the editors described Blake's cut and wrote:
"The only group she (Blake) went up with in the 'excellent' category was men, and they are absolutely not our audience!"
According to the alleged texts, the editor said that Blake's cut focused most of the film on herself and men who liked looking at her. As per reports by Stylecaster, Sony Productions and Wayfarer urged Blake that she included Baldoni's cut since it tested "significantly higher". In another text, Justin revealed that he was "kicked out" of the film by Blake.
When Colleen Hoover and Blake Lively went to BookCon, Justin Baldoni was disallowed to even view the movie's final cut until the premiere.
Lively allegedly referred to Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift to pressure Justin Baldoni into liking her pages
Among the number of emails and text messages shared between multiple parties, including Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively, producers, and editors, one of the messages revealed that Blake apparently referred to Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds.
According to Stylecaster, Blake had offered to rewrite certain parts of the script. This included the popular rooftop scene of the movie. Baldoni wrote to Blake, which read:
"Also, was working on the rooftop scene today, I really love what you did... Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor). You really are a talent across the board..."
Through a reply text to Baldoni, she appreciated his remarks and even claimed that the movie deeply inspired her. As per Variety, the latest lawsuit read:
"Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him."
In the complaint, Taylor Swift is not named as a defendant. Her references are also absent in the suit, apart from that one text from Justin to Blake, as per reports by Variety.
The legal fight between Justin and Blake began after the latter sued the film director on December 31, 2024. Justin Baldoni first sued The New York Times for reporting the allegations made by Blake. Finally, he sued Blake and Ryan on January 16, 2025.