Justin Baldoni appears to have sent Blake Lively a lengthy voice note apology during the making of “It Ends with Us” in which he tells his costar that he “fucked up” in his handling of rewrites she proposed for one of the film’s pivotal scenes.
In a nearly seven-minute audio clip that TMZ published Monday that’s purportedly from the time of the film’s production, Baldoni seems to address a clash he and Lively had over script changes for a romantic rooftop scene in the 2024 Colleen Hoover book adaptation.
HuffPost has been unable to verify when the voice note was recorded and has reached out to both Lively’s and Baldoni’s teams for clarification.
“I want to start with an apology,” Baldoni is heard telling Lively, who has since accused him of sexually harassing her during the making of “It Ends with Us.”
Baldoni, the film’s director and lead man, followed Lively’s accusations with a $400 million countersuit against her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging defamation.
NBC via Getty Images
In the voice note, which Baldoni describes as a 2 a.m. message at the start of the audio, he refers to a text exchange that is also included in Baldoni’s legal filings.
Texts attributed to Lively in Baldoni’s 179-page complaint detail her disappointment in his initial reaction to the scene changes she proposed and mention that Reynolds and the couple’s close friend, pop star Taylor Swift, enjoyed her edits.
“Man, reading the second part of your message, my heart sank and I’m really sorry. I, for sure, fell short and you worked really hard on that,” Baldoni says in the audio, adding that Lively’s response took a “lot of trust and vulnerability.”
“I feel really grateful that you feel safe enough to tell me that that’s how you feel and share that with me,” he continues. “And I’m really sorry. I fucked up. That is a fail on my part.”
Baldoni continues, “I am far from perfect. I’m a very flawed man, as my wife will attest, and I’m gonna fuck up. I’m gonna say the wrong thing. I’m gonna put my foot in my mouth.”
“I’m gonna piss you off, probably, but I will always apologize and then find my way back to center,” the audio continues. “That is one thing I can assure you of. And I’m sorry I made you feel that way, that must have felt terrible.”
Taylor Hill via Getty Images
Addressing Reynolds and Swift’s intervention, Baldoni adds, “Damn right you’ve got great friends if that’s how you felt and they knew that. We should all have friends like that; aside from the fact that they’re the two most creative people on the planet.”
“I’m excited to go through the whole movie with you,” Baldoni says later in the audio. “I’m just excited to spend time with you.”
The legal battle between Baldoni and Lively began in December when the “Gossip Girl” actor lodged a complaint with California’s Civil Rights Department in which she accused the director of sexual harassment and launching a subsequent “smear campaign” through a crisis PR team. Baldoni has adamantly denied any wrongdoing.
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On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported that a trial date for Baldoni and Lively’s dispute has been set for March 9, 2026, in New York. The judge overseeing the cases also moved up a pretrial conference about the conflict from mid-February to next week.
Baldoni has also filed suit against The New York Times, accusing the paper of libel over a December exposé detailing Lively’s allegations that was titled “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
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