Justin Baldoni sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for defamation amid sexual harassment allegations

Actor Justin Baldoni filed a defamation lawsuit against Hollywood stars Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds on Thursday, claiming that they tried to destroy him by accusing him of sexual harassment against the actress and then retaliation against her through a smear campaign.

The lawsuit is the latest legal action in a feud tied to the 2024 film It Ends With Us, which starred Lively and Baldoni, who also directed it.

The 179-page complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, named Lively and Reynolds, her husband, as defendants, as well as their publicist Leslie Sloane and her company, Vision PR. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Baldoni; the film’s lead producer, Jamey Heath; their production company, Wayfarer Studios; and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel. They are seeking $400 million in damages.

In response to the lawsuit Thursday, Lively’s legal team said in a statement, “The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”

The New York Times published an article Dec. 21 about Lively’s allegations against Baldoni. She claimed in a complaint, filed a day earlier with the California Civil Rights Department, that Baldoni had initiated the campaign after she accused him of sexual harassment during the shooting of It Ends With Us.

The Times report referred to private text messages and emails that Lively had obtained through a subpoena and that had been included in her complaint.

The complaint alleged that the messages showed Baldoni and his business partner, Heath, working with a crisis public relations expert to tarnish Lively’s reputation because they were afraid the misconduct claims would become public. Lively sued Baldoni and others Dec. 31 in federal court in New York City.

That same day, Baldoni filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times in Los Angeles, accusing the newspaper of relying on Lively’s “unverified and self-serving narrative.” He repeated some of the claims against the publication in the suit he filed Thursday.

The Times has said it plans to vigorously defend itself against Baldoni’s claims against the publication. A Times spokesperson, Danielle Rhoades Ha, added in a statement Thursday, “The allegations against The New York Times in this new lawsuit are meritless and recycled from the equally baseless claims in the suit that was filed against the Times in California.”

In his countersuit against Lively, Baldoni said the actress had used her star power to hijack “every aspect” of his film and then tried to blame him when her public reputation took a hit during the film’s promotion for how she chose to market it. He accused her of trying to make him “the real-life villain in her story” and of colluding with the Times to “prepare a false and damaging narrative.”

“This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio,” the lawsuit said. “Then, when Lively and Reynolds’s efforts failed to win them the acclaim they believed they so richly deserved, they turned their fury on their chosen scapegoat.”

Baldoni denied that the alleged sexual harassment of Lively or the smear campaign against her had happened, and said he was the one who had been the victim of such a campaign.