Justin Baldoni sued Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for civil extortion, defamation and other actions in a lawsuit filed Thursday.
Baldoni accused Lively of tormenting him, his family and colleagues in a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York and obtained by Fox News Digital. The actor requested a jury trial and a judgment of $400 million.
Lively sued Baldoni first for sexual harassment after the two starred together in the Colleen Hoover-adapted film, “It Ends With Us.” Since the premiere of the movie in August, Lively has also accused Baldoni of participating in a deliberate smear campaign to ruin her reputation.
However, Baldoni — along with Wayfarer Studios, Jamey Heath and others — paint a different story in the actor’s own lawsuit.
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Justin Baldoni, left, sued Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for civil extortion, defamation and more in a lawsuit filed Thursday. (Getty Images)
“Plaintiffs now have no choice but to fight back armed only with the truth — and the mountain of concrete evidence disproving Lively’s allegations,” the court docs read.
“Heartbreakingly, a film that Baldoni envisioned years ago would honor the survivors of domestic violence by telling their story, with the lofty goal of making a positive impact in the world, has now been overshadowed beyond recognition solely as a result of Lively’s actions and cruelty.”
Baldoni’s legal team claimed Lively has no evidence of a deliberate smear campaign and instead worked to repair her reputation by accusing the actor and others of sexual harassment.
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“But Lively could not tolerate her publicly tainted image for even a moment, and further could not accept that it was entirely of her own making,” the lawsuit read. “She needed a scapegoat. And rather than admit and take accountability for her own mishaps, she chose to blame Plaintiffs, in a malicious and unforgivably public manner.”
“When she and Reynolds could not force Baldoni and Wayfarer to read a statement she and her representatives prepared, extorting them to ‘take accountability’ in defense of Lively’s actions, she lay in wait for months, preparing to publicly attack Baldoni by falsely claiming that he had sexually harassed her.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are seen on the set of “It Ends With Us” on Jan. 12, 2024. (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
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Baldoni’s legal team included text messages, emails and more as “untampered evidence” backing up the “Jane the Virgin” star’s claims.
“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 team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “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.”
“Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power,” the statement continued. “Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action. We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”
A representative for Lively shared a statement with Fox News Digital on Thursday.
“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender,” the statement began.
Ryan Reynolds was also included in Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
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“Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.
“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success,” the statement continued.
Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
“Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail,” Lively’s statement concluded.
Lively detailed allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, intentional affliction of emotional distress, negligence and more made by Baldoni and film producer Jamey Heath in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights department and later in federal court.
According to the complaint, obtained by Fox News Digital, the actress convened an “all hands” meeting on Jan. 4, 2024, regarding the alleged behavior of Baldoni and Heath, a meeting which her husband, Reynolds, attended.
“Ms. Lively was forced to address concerns about Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath’s misconduct with them directly, and began doing so months before filming began,” the complaint reads. “The concerns she raised were not only for herself, but for the other female cast and crew, some of whom had also spoken up.”
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Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times for defamation following Blake Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Following Lively’s lawsuit, Baldoni also sued The New York Times for defamation.
However, Lively’s team noted her allegations are “backed by concrete facts.”
“This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation,” her lawyers told Fox News Digital. “As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer [Studios] and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.”
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