Blake Lively reacts to Justin Baldoni’s new $400 million lawsuit

Blake Lively has responded via its legal team to Justin Baldonis studio files a new lawsuit against her, her publicist Leslie Sloan and her husband Ryan Reynolds.

The archive, obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, Jan. 16, is seeking $400 million in damages, accusing Lively, 37, of being “determined to make Baldoni the real villain in her story” to avoid her allegedly “tone-deaf” promotion of It ends with usthe film that Baldoni, 40, and Lively worked on together. The lawsuit also includes allegations of civil racketeering, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, among other claims.

Lively’s legal team hit back at the Baldoni camp’s “desperate” strategy, sharing a statement with Us Weekly Thursday, January 16 in response.

“This latest lawsuit by Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its associates is another chapter in the abuser’s playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation, and the abuser tries to turn the tables on the victim. It’s , what experts call DARVO. Attacks,” read the statement. “Wayfarer has chosen to use the resources of his co-founder to issuing media statements, launching frivolous lawsuits and threatening lawsuits to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.”

Related: Justin Baldoni’s studio is suing Blake Lively, Reynolds, representative for $400 million

Justin Baldoni’s studio filed a new lawsuit against his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, seeking $400 million in damages. According to the filing obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, Lively, 37, was “determined to make Baldoni the real villain of her story” to fend off her (…)

Lively’s legal team accused Baldoni’s team of trying to “shift” the focus to Lively and away from Baldoni himself.

“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she took 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 read.

The statement continued: “Their response to allegations of sexual harassment: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why it happened to her: look at 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.”

Baldoni claimed that the feud between him and Lively began in May 2023, when filming started. He claimed that Lively created a “takeover strategy” as they battled for creative control.

The documents include emails between Baldoni and Lively before filming began, in which Baldoni claimed Lively “expressed warm gratitude” for the preparation but believed she would try to gain control.

Baldoni alleged that Lively had not read It ends with us. The lawsuit reads: “she even tried to Google the color of her character’s hair instead of picking up the book.”

After the trial, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, shared in a statement to Us“This lawsuit is a lawsuit based on an overwhelming amount of unadulterated evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s twofold attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and manipulated information to the media. “

Related: Blake Lively and Justin Baldonis Reported ‘It Ends With Us’ Drama Explained

UPDATE 1/16/25 at 12:43 PM ET: Justin Baldon’s Wayfarer Studios filed a $400 million lawsuit against It Ends With Us star Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, on Thursday, January 16. In the 179-page filing obtained by Us Weekly, Baldoni claimed that Lively was “determined” to make him a “real villain in her story.” (…)

The statement continued: “It is clear, based on our own willingness to provide all the complete text messages, emails, video recordings and other documentary evidence shared between the parties in real time, that this is a battle she will not win and will definitely regret it. Blake Lively was either seriously misled by her team or willfully and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”

“Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely to gain her personal reputation at the expense of those without power,” the statement read. “Let’s not forget that Ms. Lively and her team tried to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for despicable 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 don’t lie.”

Us Weekly has contacted Baldoni for comment.