Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds face $400 million lawsuit from Justin Baldoni

Justin Baldoni is suing Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for trying to “ruin” his reputation with allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior.

The actor-director filed a $400m (£327m) lawsuit against the Hollywood power couple on Thursday after Lively claimed Baldoni sexually harassed her at the romantic drama It Ends With Usand orchestrated a smear campaign against her.

Two weeks ago, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, claiming it defamed him in an article about Lively’s claims by uncritically accepting a “self-serving narrative,” and threatened to sue Lively as well.

On Thursday, Bryan Freedman, appearing for Baldoni, claimed that Lively – the Gossip Girl star – had “attempted to carve out reputations and livelihoods for despicably selfish reasons” through “dangerous manipulation of the media”.

He continued: “This lawsuit is a lawsuit based on an overwhelming amount of unmanipulated evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s twofold attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni … by relaying grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and manipulated information to the media.

“It is clear based on our own willingness to provide all of the complete text messages, emails, video recordings and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real time that this is a battle she will not win and most certainly will regret.

“Blake Lively was either seriously misled by her team or willfully and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”

“We know the truth, and now the public does too,” continued Mr. Freedman. “Justin and his team have nothing to hide. Documents don’t lie.”

Lively, Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Stone — who is also named in the lawsuit — did not respond to a request for comment from People magazine.

Lively claimed last month that she had been targeted by Baldoni an online campaign to “bury” her reputation after she complained privately about inappropriate sexual behavior on the set of It Ends With Us.

In court documents, she claimed that Baldoni – her co-star and the director of the film – along with producer Jamey Heath, had seen her topless in her trailer while she was having her body makeup removed.

Baldoni was also said in the documents to have introduced “improvised” kisses in some scenes, Tried to add unnecessary sex scenesmade sexually inappropriate comments to Lively and openly discussed his sex life on set.

The lawsuit added that Baldoni and his studio, Wayfarer, hired a team of PR experts who specialized in using social media to drag down celebrities’ reputations.

“(Baldoni) wants her to feel like she can be buried,” a publicist working with Wayfarer said in a message to Melissa Nathan, a crisis management expert, in August, according to court documents filed Dec. 20.

“You know we can bury anyone,” Nathan is said to have written in response.

Lively argued that Baldoni’s alleged behavior during the making of It Ends With Us in 2023, and while promoting the film in 2024, left her with “grief, fear, trauma and extreme anxiety”.

‘Completely false claims’

Baldoni vehemently denied the allegations, which his lawyer characterized as “completely false, outrageous and intentionally brutal”, and has launched a blizzard of legal action.

In the lawsuit, filed two weeks ago, he is seeking $250m (£204m) in damages from The New York Times, claiming it selectively used information and deliberately omitted parts of text messages to support Lively’s claims .

“The article’s central thesis, wrapped in a defamatory headline designed to immediately mislead the reader, is that Plaintiffs orchestrated a retaliatory campaign against Lively for speaking out about sexual harassment — a premise that is categorically false and easily disproved,” court documents state . .

The New York Times defended its article, which was headlined “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” as being “carefully and responsibly reported.”

In addition to claiming defamation of the newspaper, Mr. Freedman that Lively tried to wrest control of the film from Baldoni before planting press stories to damage his reputation.

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