Blake Lively lawsuit claims co-star used Hailey Bieber as an inspiration in plot to 'destroy' her reputation after leaked texts emerge

Blake Lively has accused Justin Baldoni of using Hailey Bieber as inspiration to ‘destroy’ her reputation as details from the lawsuit are released.

The two actors starred together in this year’s It Ends With Us film, which is based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover.

While the romantic drama hit cinemas back in August, fans immediately noticed that the pair were not doing press together, sparking rumors of a feud.

But it appears that it runs deeper now that Lively has filed a lawsuit (obtained by the New York Times), alleging that Baldoni attempted to create a smear campaign against her, which caused ‘severe emotional distress’ for both her and her family.

Baldoni's lawyer has responded to the claims made in the lawsuit, calling them 'categorically false' as well as accusing her of planting fake stories in a 'desperate attempt to fix her negative reputation'.

Lively has continued to deny that she or her representatives spread negative information about Baldoni or Wayfayer Studios and told The New York Times: "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.”

In her suit, Lively claims that before August 2, Baldoni hired a crisis management expert called Melissa Nathan. She then made-up part of a PR team that also contained publicist Jennifer Abel.

Together, the pair allegedly go on to enact Baldoni’s wishes by flipping the narrative using social media.

In her lawsuit, Lively shared alleged texts that Baldoni purportedly sent Abel which shows his apparent inspiration for his social media campaign.

It contained a screenshot of an X thread about bullying allegations Bieber was embroiled in very recently with the words: “This is what we would need.”

It appeared to allude that he wanted to create an aura around Lively of being a bully.

Days later on August 5, Baldoni allegedly sent the Bieber message, and Able response that she had just ‘spoke to Melissa about this…about what we discussed last night for social and digital.’

She then added to ‘focus on reddit, TikTok, IG’.

It was then that they apparently engaged in their ‘social manipulation’ campaign to turn the tide against Lively, where they utilized subcontractors to create and promote content that appeared as though it was the opinion of members of the public.

They also allegedly drip fed the press information and made certain content viral to boost public opinion.

On August 2, Abel wrote that she was 'having reckless thoughts of wanting to plant pieces this week about how horrible Blake is to work with'.

On 10 August, a text message from Nathan's team suggested that they were 'starting to see a shift on social', with Nathan later following up to claim that the 'majority of the socials are so pro Justin and I don't even agree with half of them'.

UNILAD contacted Justin Baldoni's representatives for comment.