"This has got to be white collar crime"— Candace Owens weighs in on Blake Lively's alleged "sham lawsuit" to obtain Justin Baldoni's text messages

Podcaster Candace Owens discussed one of the latest updates of the Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni lawsuit in the April 22, 2025, episode of her podcast. Owens weighed in on the alleged “sham lawsuit” that Blake Lively filed against Justin Baldoni's ex-publicist, Stephanie Jones, and her company, Jonesworks.

"I am totally seized by the updates in the Ryan and Blake case…It’s so much more ugly and more psychotic than any of us could have possibly envisioned. Essentially she (Blake Lively) got caught filing a sham lawsuit. power tripping. This has got to be white collar crime," Owens said.

In this podcast episode, Owens referred to the revelations first reported by the Daily Mail on April 18, 2025. The article revealed that Lively had filed a quiet lawsuit back on September 27, 2024, through her company, Vanzan Inc. The lawsuit subpoenaed all documents and communications related to Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, their companies, and Justin Baldoni.

However, the lawsuit was quietly withdrawn on December 19, 2024, just one day before Lively formally filed a California Civil Rights Department complaint against Baldoni. Discussing the case details and its implications, Owens stated that the case had now "transformed from civil to criminal." Commenting on the emotional toll and potential fallout, the podcaster added:

"It’s going to be so sad for everyone except for Ryan Reynolds and Harley Pasternack and Blake Lively… they’re probably counting down the days on a calendar like they’re going on a Disney trip or whatever."

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Candace Owens alleges that the “sham lawsuit” by Blake Lively against Stephanie Jones, ex-publicist of Justin Baldoni, is fake

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds at the "It Ends With Us" New York Premiere - Source: Getty

In the aforementioned podcast episode, Candace Owens shared her own theory regarding the recently revealed alleged "sham lawsuit" by Blake Lively against Justin Baldoni. She stated that she was only "reading into the situation" and claimed that the whole "Vanzan lawsuit" was fake.

As per the Daily Mail report dated April 11, 2025, Justin Baldoni added Stephanie Jones to his $400 million defamation lawsuit, alleging her responsible for leaking confidential messages found in a work-issued cellphone belonging to Jones's former partner, Jennifer Abel.

These messages were key to Lively's defamation case against Justin Baldoni and were featured in the New York Times 'expose' in December. However, back then, responding to Baldoni's filing, Jones refuted the allegations about leaking 'confidential information' and argued that she had only complied with a subpoena.

As previously mentioned, on April 18, 2025, the Daily Mail confirmed that this subpoena was issued when Blake Lively filed her "sham lawsuit" via Vanzan Inc. Owens stated that this "sham lawsuit" was the “final piece of the puzzle” that “pulls everybody” related to the case together.

Owens further explained the timeline of events, starting from July 10, 2024, when Jennifer Abel tendered her resignation and was terminated to leave on August 21, 2024.

"That's when Stephanie Jones confiscates Jennifer Abel’s phone," Owens speculated.

She then theorized that the same messages that were central to Lively's defamation case had been accessed unlawfully. She speculated that those messages were initially meant to be handed over directly to The New York Times.

"And then somebody in the group—maybe it’s Ryan Reynolds, I think it’s Ryan Reynolds—says 'whoa whoa whoa, was that legal? We have the messages and we’re going to go to press and we’re going to fight this in The New York Times, but like, can we get in trouble?'" she remarked.

Owens then explained how the Lively-parties involved allegedly began scrambling on the "back end" since they needed "to pretend that there’s a real subpoena," otherwise they would get in trouble for allegedly stealing an "employee’s phone."

"So they actually found a lawyer to give them advice and to tell them how to file a fake lawsuit-so that they could use that fake lawsuit to pretend that they legally took Jennifer Abel’s phone," Owens added.

The podcaster further pointed out the vague language throughout the legal filing in the alleged "sham lawsuit."

"The language throughout the lawsuit is intentionally vague because they never wanted the public to find it, okay? They never wanted the public to find this. Again, they’re trying to work backwards to legitimatize something that they likely stole," Owens explained.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are currently embroiled in a heated legal battle, scheduled for trial on March 9, 2026.