Justin Baldoni has released a statement he claims was drafted by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, urging him to accept blame amid the backlash surrounding the actress during the It Ends With Us press tour.
Baldoni, facing sexual harassment allegations from Lively, launched a website on Saturday to defend himself, featuring his amended $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, along with a timeline of relevant events related to the case that was included as an exhibit to the filing.
One of the key documents shared on the website includes an alleged statement that Lively and Reynolds reportedly wanted Baldoni to release through his production company Wayfarer, in an effort to mitigate the negative attention surrounding Lively.
This backlash stemmed from an online narrative accusing Lively of being insensitive to the film’s subject matter of domestic violence and of engaging in ‘mean girl’ behavior, per NBC News.
Lively has claimed that Baldoni’s team played a role in damaging her reputation, an accusation his attorney has denied.
The statement, dated August 12, 2024, reads as follows: ‘IT ENDS WITH US was a troubled production which we take full accountability for. We are very sorry to everyone we caused upset to privately and publicly.’
Justin Baldoni has released a statement he claims was drafted by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, urging him to accept blame amid the backlash surrounding the actress during the It Ends With Us press tour; (seen in December)
One of the key documents shared on the website includes an alleged statement that Lively and Reynolds reportedly wanted Baldoni to release through his production company Wayfarer, in an effort to mitigate the negative attention surrounding Lively; (seen in 2023)
It continued: ‘Blake Lively, Colleen Hoover, the entire cast and crew led with professionalism every step of the way, any negativity aimed at them is ours to own. We mutually agreed that the cast would be promoting the film separately and understood why.
‘We have always said we are not perfect and even if unintentionally make mistakes, we will always own then. We hold ourselves accountable, it’s not anyone’s job but ours and that’s part of being ‘man enough’.
‘We will practice what we preach. We are learning and growing from the experience and we thank everyone for their patience as we find a better way to proceed.
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‘We are very proud of the film and the welcome arms that it’s been received. Part of our work is to have uncomfortable conversations for public growth.
‘The film is doing that on screen and we are doing that off screen.
‘Thank you to the cast and public for the opportunity to be imperfect and to be given the space to learn and grow.’
Daily.Mail.com has reached out to reps for both Lively and Reynolds.
According to Baldoni’s court filings on his website, neither he nor his team believed the statement would have the desired effect.
The alleged statement, dated August 12, 2024, reads as follows: ‘IT ENDS WITH US was a troubled production which we take full accountability for. We are very sorry to everyone we caused upset to privately and publicly’
Lively has claimed that Baldoni’s team played a role in damaging her reputation, an accusation his attorney has denied; (Lively and Reynolds in 2014)
In the timeline court filing, Baldoni’s team claims that his reps at the time, WME ‘concurs with Wayfarer that the statement was vague, implies culpability without substance, and fails to address the issues at hand.
‘Furthermore, if the goal was to mitigate negative online attention directed at Lively, the statement would have the opposite effect. In response, Wayfarer, Baldoni, and Heath reject the demand, firmly refusing to issue any statement falsely assuming responsibility for non-existent issues.’
The legal filings on his website also includes Baldoni’s alleged handwritten notes from a meeting with the film’s intimacy coordinator.
The notes, which Baldoni claims were shared with Lively during one of their ‘script-writing meetings’ in New York, mention explicit scenes involving Lively’s character, such as ‘goes down on her,’ ‘orgasm,’ and ‘foreplay.’
The document alleges, ‘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.’
It continues, ‘Ideally, these conversations would have taken place directly between Lively and the intimacy coordinator, as Baldoni had requested. However, Lively declined to meet with her, leaving Baldoni in the less-than-ideal position of having to relay these notes to Lively in her penthouse.’
Lively, 37, filed a lawsuit against Baldoni on December 31, 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and lost wages.
Baldoni has denied the allegations and filed his own $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloan, and Reynolds.
The website (pictured above) contain legal documents that share his side of the story
The decision to publish the site on Saturday comes after the star amended his $400 million suit accusing Lively of giving The New York Times advance access to her sexual harassment complaint; Baldoni and Lively pictured on set last year
The film at the heart of the feud, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover, was released in August and was a box office hit and it follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni; (pictured in 2024)
In his lawsuit, Baldoni claims Lively never met with an intimacy coordinator while filming It Ends With Us. Lively denies the allegations.
Following the launch of Baldoni’s website, The New York Times issued a strong rebuttal to the accusations made in Baldoni’s amended lawsuit.
On February 1, Baldoni filed an amended version of his $400 million defamation suit, alleging that his co-star Lively had given the publication early access to her sexual harassment complaint.
In the updated suit, Baldoni’s legal team claims an analysis of the article’s HTML source code revealed a ‘message-embed-generator’ with a date of ‘2024-10-31,’ though the article was not published until December 2024.
In response, The New York Times issued a statement rejecting the allegations, particularly a claim that the publication had gained ‘early access’ to Lively’s civil rights complaint.
A spokesperson for The Times said in a statement, ‘The Baldoni/Wayfarer legal filings are rife with inaccuracies about The New York Times, including, for example, the bogus claim that The Times had early access to Ms. Lively’s state civil rights complaint.
The spokesperson further addressed the specific allegation regarding the article’s date, noting that the sleuths had pointed to a version of Lively’s state complaint published by The Times that showed a ‘December 10’ date, despite the complaint not being filed until more than a week later.
However, they clarified, ‘The problem: that date is generated by Google software and is unrelated to the date when The Times received it and posted it. A look at the metadata from the posted document correctly shows it was posted after Ms. Lively filed it with the California Civil Rights Department.’
‘Mr. Baldoni’s lawyers base their erroneous claim on postings by amateur internet sleuths, who, not surprisingly, are wrong.’