Blake Lively sues It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni for 'sexually harassing her'

Blake Lively has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni, claiming he tried to ruin her reputation, according to legal documents

Blake Lively has launched a lawsuit against her former 'It Ends with Us' co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment. The actress collaborated with Justin on the critically divisive film, which was riddled with reports of backstage drama.

After months of speculation about a rift between the leading stars, Blake has now accused her co-star and director of a concerted effort to tarnish her reputation, according to legal documents viewed by US media outlet TMZ. In response, Baldoni's team have labelled Blake as "shameful" and accused her of a "false attempt" to restore her own image.

Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, slammed the lawsuit, stating it was crafted to "fix Blake's negative reputation," and added that the allegations are "false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt."

The news of the lawsuit follows months of rumours about a behind-the-scenes clash between Blake and her co-star during the filming of the adaptation of Colleen Hoover's massively popular novel. The book, which has become a sensation on TikTok, narrates the story of Lily Bloom (played by Lively) falling in love with Ryle Kincaid (portrayed by Justin Baldoni).

The pair both worked on It Ends With Us(Image: Sony Pictures)

Months after the film's release, Blake alleges that Baldoni's supposed behaviour caused her "severe emotional distress". As per TMZ, the lawsuit mentions a meeting held to address Lively's claims and her demands for working on the movie, attended by various figures, including Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, reports the Mirror.

According to a lawsuit mentioned by TMZ, certain requests were met, such as "no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous 'pornography addiction,' no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew's genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake's weight, and no further mention of Blake's dead father."

The legal documents also cited demands like "No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project," allegedly agreed upon by the studio. Yet, despite these concessions, the film tanked, with a key dispute being how it was promoted – Blake aimed for an emphasis on her character’s resilience, clashing with Baldoni's focus on domestic violence.

Blake is married to Ryan Reynolds(Image: Getty Images)

The drama intensified as Blake made a cheerful social media plug: "Grab your friends, wear your florals, and head out to see it" – a tone some found off-key with the film’s serious content. Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, responding to the Mirror, slammed Blake's claims as ‘shameful’.

The statement from the studio was pretty damning: "It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions."

Throwing further shade, they added: "These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.

Justin's team has hit back(Image: Getty Images)

"It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address.

"The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals."

Daily Star has reached out to Blake and Justin's reps.