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Blake fights back: ‘I’m doing this for my girls’

Her feud with co-star Justin amps up as she sues for sexual harassment on set

Back in August, the buzzed-about premiere of It Ends With Us was hugely overshadowed by rumours of a rift between its leading stars, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who doubled as director on the film.

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And after a storm of controversy and negative backlash against her, Blake, 37, has come back fighting – hitting Justin, 40, with a lawsuit for sexual harassment over his allegedly “invasive, unwelcome and unprofessional” behaviour during filming.

Among dozens of allegations against Justin – along with a producer and members of his PR team – Blake’s claiming her co-star led a deliberate and hurtful smear campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation for speaking out about her concerns on set.

On 21 December, The New York Times published an article that shared text messages alleged to be between Justin and his PR team outlining a plan to make sure that Blake – not Justin – became the subject of negative press.

Justin Baldoni at the movie premiere
Justin is accused of “degrading” Blake by body-shaming her.
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Justin has vehemently denied Blake’s recent allegations and on 31 December, he filed a $250 million lawsuit against the newspaper for libel.

In the suit, Justin claims the true source of tension on set was “Lively’s cynical abuse of sexual harassment allegations to assert unilateral control over the production”.

He also plans to sue Blake and his lawyer has asserted that Justin is prepared to release a trove of text messages that will add the context needed to prove his innocence.

However, an insider says the actress is not only determined to hold Justin accountable, but also show her three young daughters, James, 10, Ines, eight, and Betty, five, what it means to stand up for oneself as a woman in a man’s world.

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“Blake’s biggest heartbreak is how a very important film about domestic violence and overcoming it was undermined and destroyed by this whole situation,” the insider says. “She wants to clear her name, but she also has her daughters to think about – and she’s not going to let this slide.”

Blake Lively walking with her three daughters
Blake is determined to set a good example for her girls.

Blake’s husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, has been “incredibly supportive” of her crusade for justice and the source adds, “Blake hasn’t got to where she is by being a pushover, but she wouldn’t have gone through with this if she didn’t have the support of Ryan.”

Colleen Hoover, who wrote the bestselling book the film is based on, has also been by Blake’s side throughout the drama. She wrote on Instagram recently, “Blake Lively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met… Never change. Never wilt.”

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The author was also among the many co-stars who seemingly sided with Blake after filming and during the publicity tour, with Justin noticeably frozen out at the New York premiere and oddly doing press on his own – despite playing Blake’s love interest.

While whispers of an on-set feud were hard to ignore, Blake’s complaint shows just how fraught with tension the It Ends With Us set really was. After putting up with Justin’s allegedly inappropriate behaviour on the set – which Blake claims includes the director adding in gratuitous sex scenes after she was cast, as well as “improvised” kissing – the actress called a crisis meeting, which Ryan also attended.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on set of It Ends With Us
Blake alleges sexual misconduct on set caused her “severe emotional distress”.

Together, the couple then allegedly demanded there be “no more showing nude videos or images of women to Lively, no more mention of Baldoni’s alleged previous ‘pornography addiction’ and no more discussions about sexual conquests”.

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Though the demands were met from then on, Blake claims it wasn’t long until Justin and his team began engineering the social media pile-on to paint her in a bad light and protect his own reputation.

Justin’s lawyer has dismissed Blake’s allegations, calling them “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” and an attempt to “fix her negative reputation”. However, Justin’s talent agency, WME, dropped him as a client and kept Blake on their books.

Blake stated, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”

Her case against Justin

The alleged ‘sexually inappropriate’ behaviour

Justin Baldoni with Jamey Heath
Justin and Jamey have been accused of crossing boundaries.
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Blake claims Justin “bit and sucked on her lip” and “insisted on shooting over and over”. Blake also accuses producer Jamey Heath of watching her in her trailer when she was topless, and Justin and Jamey of walking in when she was undressed and breastfeeding her son Olin.

The ‘social manipulation’ campaign to ‘destroy’ her

Blake claims Justin ran a smear campaign aimed at planting theories on online message boards, a process known as “astroturfing”, and placing news stories that were critical of her.

Justin Baldoni’s crisis team, Melissa and Jennifer.
Justin’s crisis team, Melissa and Jennifer.

The text messages

Blake subpoenaed “thousands of pages” of texts and emails allegedly including one from Justin’s publicist Jennifer Able to crisis PR executive Melissa Nathan, stating that he “wants to feel like [Blake] can be buried”. Blake accuses Melissa of colluding with her sister Sara, a New York Post editor.

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Stream It Ends With Us now on Apple TV.

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