It Ends With Us is back in the news in a very unfortunate way. The film was controversial from the start, with arguments over its source material’s depiction of domestic violence (it’s based on Colleen Hoover’s novel) and whether or not star Blake Lively fit the lead role of Lily Bloom. Also, the costumes. And that was before it even came out.
Once it hit theaters, the discussions only got louder. First, it became clear that the majority of the cast, and especially Lively, were distancing themselves from director Justin Baldoni, who also played the love interest turned villain, Ryle Kincaid. Then public opinion quickly turned against Lively as her tone-deaf marketing efforts fell flat (“Wear your florals!”), though they didn’t hamper the movie’s box-office success. At the same time, rumors spread that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, had been too controlling over the film, with Lively, also a producer, reportedly commissioning her own edit of the final product.
While criticism of Lively intensified, Baldoni was being praised for centering domestic violence during his (noticeably solo) press ventures. He was even presented an award for being an ally to women, which has since been revoked.
Four months after the film's release, public sentiment took a drastic turn when Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment, accusing the actor of launching a PR smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation—and the complaint was filled with alleged receipts. Here's everything that has gone down, since the beginning.
Baldoni picked Lively for the lead.
For some context, It Ends With Us is a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel. In the book, florist Lily Bloom (Lively) finds herself falling for the devastatingly handsome but abusive and controlling neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer, optioned the book in 2019 before casting Lively.
“I just thought that she would make an incredible Lily, so I flew out to meet her,” Baldoni told reporters of the decision. “We had a three-hour meeting, and, you know, at the end of the meeting, I just said, ‘You are absolutely Lily. I would love for you to play her.’”
Meanwhile, Baldoni says he was asked to play Ryle by Colleen Hoover herself. “It was her thinking that I could do it that actually gave me the confidence and the freedom to explore it for myself.”
Cracks began to appear on the red carpet.
Looking through photos from the movie’s New York premiere in August 2024, creators on TikTok noticed that while the rest of the cast is photographed together, it doesn’t look as though anyone took photos with Baldoni. Instead he posed on the carpet with his wife, Emily Baldoni (who plays an ultrasound tech in the film), and some of his friends.
Hugh Jackman’s presence was also noted, as Reynolds appeared to be using the event to promote Deadpool & Wolverine.
Lively, It Ends With Us book author Colleen Hoover, Jenny Slate, and Brandon Sklenar don’t appear to follow Baldoni on Instagram.
Baldoni’s podcast cohost and friend Liz Plank did attend the It Ends With Us premiere and posted about it to her Instagram Stories. However, she didn’t pose for pictures with Baldoni and didn’t tag him in any of her posts. What’s more, they haven’t released a new episode of their podcast, Man Enough, since mid-June.
No one wanted to talk about him, either.
Asked what it was like having Baldoni as both a scene partner and a director, Slate pivoted and said that it’s a “tough job” to do both things at once, and that she, herself, wouldn’t want to have two jobs at the same time.
Meanwhile, Lively appeared to dodge a question about building trust with Baldoni as a scene partner during a Yahoo! Entertainment interview posted on TikTok on August 9. “I mean, this movie was such a challenge because you have scenes that are deeply painful and traumatic and physical, but you also have scenes that are full of levity and light and romance,” Lively said. “And normally, when I see this type of character like Ryle on screen, you know what’s going to happen, and you’re like, ‘Ah, that guy’s full of red flags.’”
She continued, “But the way that Colleen wrote Ryle, I think, is just so—I think that’s why the story resonates with so many, is [because] you get why Lily stays. You get why Lily chooses to believe a different reality because you’re watching her in real time. You, too, are going like, ‘I know what I just saw, but I don’t want to…maybe I didn’t just see that.’ That is the the magic of this film is, is how she made these characters so, so winning.”
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Multiple viewers in the comments described Lively’s answer as “wild” given that she did not mention Baldoni in her answer at all.
How did Ryan Reynolds play into this?
Lively (who is a co-executive producer on the project) revealed that Reynolds wrote a pivotal scene of the film. “The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it,” Lively told E! News. “Nobody knows that but you now.” She continued, “He works on everything I do. I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations, are mine and mine are his.” (Did his work constitute being a scab during the 2023 writers’ strike? Allegedly, no.)
This has led to a lot of fan speculation that Reynolds and Lively may have seized creative control of the film, to Baldoni’s dismay.
“You literally can’t convince me that Ryan Reynolds isn’t the reason for all this Justin Baldoni/It Ends With Us drama, and I feel like Justin doesn’t want anything to do with the drama, and for that reason has chosen a step back from the PR events leading up to the movie,” pop culture TikToker Arianna Lillie said in one video. “And I’m not saying that Blake Lively has specifically been problematic, but I knew something was up the second I heard that Ryan Reynolds was coming in and rewriting scenes of a movie that Justin Baldoni is not only starring in, but also directing, and is the whole reason this project is happening.”
The TikTok user noted that Reynolds interviewed Lively’s other love interest from the film and claimed he is trying to make Deadpool and It Ends with Us “the next Barbenheimer,” adding, “It seems like Justin is getting pushed out of this whole situation, which is honestly kind of sad because he was most excited about this whole thing from the start.”
The actor grilled his wife Blake Lively’s love interest in the movie, as one does.
Lively and Baldoni’s alleged power struggle
In an interview with People back in April, Baldoni said there “wasn’t a part of this production that [Lively] didn’t touch and have influence on,” adding, “Everything that she put her hands on and her mind to, she made better.”
She confirmed this in an interview with Variety. “It was so important to me to work off camera,” Lively told Variety on August 6. “The work I did as a producer was far more all-consuming than anything I did playing Lily. I just did it all. There’s nothing I didn’t touch on this film.”
At the premiere, Baldoni said that he doesn’t want to direct the film’s potential sequel based on Hoover’s follow-up novel, It Starts With Us. “I think that there are better people for that one,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the New York premiere on August 6, per People. “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct, that’s what I think.”
The film itself is pretty good. Everything else? Kind of a mess.
What else were people saying?
One TikTok user also described some of Lively and Reynolds’s press tour moments as “tone deaf,” considering the somber themes of the book and film—and this is not the first time It Ends With Us has faced this critique.
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“When are they gonna start talking about emotional and domestic abuse in a relationship and raise awareness for that,” one user commented on a video of female cast members and Colleen Hoover that had been posted to Lively’s Instagram feed. “Am I the only one that is seeing that [Lively is] promoting stuff in her name but not talking about what the book is actually about? 😐,” one user commented on Lively’s Instagram post promoting her beverage company in conjunction with It Ends With Us.
Meanwhile, Baldoni seemed to focus on the film’s depiction of abuse. “I want men to go to the theater and in some ways see a version of themselves,” he said in an interview with CBS News. “You have two very different characters. Both of them in Atlas and Ryle have had past trauma. One handles it very differently than the other, and my other hope is the men who have not done the work, who have not done the work to heal, if they see bits of themselves in Ryle, have a chance to step back and say, ‘You know what? I don’t want to blow up my life. I don’t want to hurt the person I love the most.’”
Blake Lively’s latest film is a nuanced portrayal of an abusive relationship. Unfortunately, her interviews about domestic violence during the film’s promotion have fallen flat.
Then there were the weight rumors…
When Lively began working on the film, she had recently given birth to her third daughter and was reportedly uncomfortable with her weight, especially after Baldoni asked her about it, per Page Six. However, some sources reported that he asked specifically because of a scene in which he was to lift her, and he needed to know to prevent aggravating a back injury.
On August 9, Page Six reported that “multiple sources” claim Baldoni made Lively “uncomfortable” on set and created an “extremely difficult” working environment for the entire cast.
What Justin Baldoni initially said about criticism of the film
Baldoni responded to criticism that It Ends With Us “glorifies” domestic violence with an even hand, saying, “[People] are absolutely entitled to that opinion, and it makes perfect sense as to why they would feel that way.”
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He continued, “Look, we live in a culture where, unfortunately, too many things are glorified. And we are fighting for attention, we’re in an attention economy. We’re in a clickbait world and everyone is trying to figure out how to gather attention. Look at the news cycle—it’s everywhere around us and so it makes perfect sense that people would feel that way.”
“Also, if anybody has had that real-life [domestic violence] experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to imagine their experience being in a romance novel,” he said. “To them I would just offer that we were very intentional in the making of this movie.”
The film’s press tour, in particular, has sparked major online discourse.
Four months later, Baldoni says he “had a near breakdown” while filming It Ends With Us.
On the How to Fail podcast, released on December 5, Baldoni spoke about the intensity of the role, saying, “There were moments in the filming of this where I had to just leave. I’d have to remove myself and go and shake it out.” Specifically, “There’s a moment in the movie where Ryle finds Lily’s phone and he finds a phone number and he’s very jealous and he’s heartbroken and he’s angry. And he doesn’t harm her. But you can see in his eyes how dangerous he is. And in particular after that scene I had a near breakdown and I had to leave and just cry…because there was so much pain.”
The psychological toll was such that Baldoni even “had dreams” as the character for a while, he said. He also spoke articulately about the issue of domestic violence.
Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment.
On December 21, 2024, TMZ reported that Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni for sexual harassment. Her lawsuit also accuses the director of embarking on a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation, which she says harmed her business and caused “severe emotional distress.”
Per TMZ, the lawsuit claims a meeting was held during filming to address the “hostile work environment,” which was also attended by Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds. According to the report, Lively came to the meeting with a list of demands regarding Baldoni’s alleged behavior, including “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex, or on-camera climaxing by [Lively] outside the scope of the script [Lively] approved when signing onto the project.”
In the lawsuit, Lively says the studio approved her requests, which also included “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.”
Justin Baldoni’s lawyer issues a statement.
In a statement to TMZ, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman alleges Lively filed her lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation,” describing her accusations as “false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
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Regarding the problems during production, Freedman accuses Lively of “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release.”
The New York Times releases a more detailed report.
After TMZ’s initial report, The New York Times released its own extensive review of the court documents, which went into more detail about that alleged meeting regarding Baldoni’s behavior. Per the Times, Lively “claimed Mr. Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent” and “repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.”
The New York Times report also included a series of text messages about Baldoni’s alleged press strategy, which Lively’s legal team obtained through a subpoena. According to the report, Baldoni became nervous after Reynolds blocked him on Instagram in May—three months before the discourse began in August. “We should have a plan for IF [Lively] does the same when movie comes out,” Baldoni reportedly wrote to a publicist named Jennifer Abel. “Plans make me feel more at ease.”
In one alleged text exchange with crisis PR expert Melissa Nathan (who previously represented Johnny Depp) in early August, Abel suggested Baldoni “wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried.”
Nathan allegedly warned against documenting their plans, writing, “We can’t write we will destroy her. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.” She reportedly added, “You know we can bury anyone.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s lawyer claims Lively planted “negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media” about Baldoni, which “was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional.” In his statement to the Times, the lawyer claims Wayfarer “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” against Lively.
You can read the complete report here.
Blake Lively issued a statement to The New York Times.
Lively denies planting negative stories about Baldoni or his production company. “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,” she said in a statement.
Colleen Hoover and IEWU cast members respond to the lawsuit.
On December 21, Hoover linked to the New York Times report while praising Lively on Instagram Stories. “You have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met,” the author wrote alongside a photo of her and Lively hugging, per The Daily Beast. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
IEWU cast members Jenny Slate and Brandon Sklenar are also standing by Lively. “As Blake Lively’s castmate and friend, I voice my support as she takes action against those reported to have planned and carried out an attack on her reputation,” Slate told TODAY.com on December 23. “Blake is a leader, loyal friend and a trusted source of emotional support for me and so many who know and love her.”
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She continued, “What has been revealed about the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing, and wholly threatening. I commend my friend, I admire her bravery, and I stand by her side.”
According to People, Sklenar shared a link to Lively’s legal documents, writing, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS.” He tagged Lively and added a heart emoji.
Lively’s friends and family show their support for her.
Meanwhile, Lively’s sister Robyn Lively shared multiple excerpts from the Times article on her own Instagram Stories, writing, “FINALLY justice for my sister @blakelively.”
Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, and Alexis Bledel shared a joint statement on Instagram in support of their “sister.”
“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” reads a post shared on Instagram on December 22. “Throughout the filming of It Ends With Us, we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice. Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors’ stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
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Amber Heard speaks out.
Actor Amber Heard declared her support for Lively after The New York Times published details of Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign, apparently spearheaded by crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan. Heard’s ex-husband, Johnny Depp, also hired Nathan during his defamation trial against Heard in 2022.
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In a statement to NBC News, the actor wrote, “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
It’s never been easier to destroy a woman’s reputation using the internet. In wake of the Blake Lively lawsuit, how should we engage?
Justin Baldoni loses his Vital Voices award.
On December 9, IEWU star Hasan Minhaj presented Justin Baldoni with an award at the 2024 Vital Voices Solidarity Awards, which “honors remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls worldwide,” according to their website.
On December 23, Vital Voices announced that Baldoni has been stripped of the honor in the wake of the allegations against him. “On Saturday, December 21, we learned through news reports about a lawsuit brought by Blake Lively against Mr. Baldoni, his publicists, and others that is disturbing and alleges abhorrent conduct,” Vital Voices wrote in a statement on Instagram. “The communications among Mr. Baldoni and his publicists in the lawsuit—and the PR effort they indicate—are, alone, contrary to the values of Vital Voices and the spirit of the Award.”
The statement continued, “We have notified Mr. Baldoni that we have rescinded this award.”
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Justin Baldoni’s lawyer calls the NYT report “ironic.”
Lawyer Bryan Freedman responds to accusations that his client embarked on a smear campaign against Lively. “TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources," he said of the crisis PR firm hired by Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, per People.
Freedman went on to say that the public “responded organically” to the It Ends With Us press tour. “The standard scenario planning TAG PR drafted proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews, and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on,” he said. “It’s ironic that The New York Times, through their effort to ‘uncover’ an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context—the very same tactics she’s accusing the firm of implementing.”
Baldoni’s Man Enough cohost, Liz Plank, leaves the podcast.
Since 2021, journalist Liz Plank has cohosted the Man Enough podcast alongside Baldoni and Wayfarer exec Jamey Heath, who was also accused of misconduct in Lively’s lawsuit. Per the podcast’s website, the show “creates a safe environment” for the hosts and guests to explore “what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people.”
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Plank announced she was leaving the podcast in a message to Man Enough listeners on December 23. “Thank you for trusting me with your hearts and stories, for holding space for mine, and for making this show what it was,” she wrote on Instagram. “I will miss you, the listeners, so much. I love what this community created together with every fiber of my being, and that’s because of you.”
She continued, “As this chapter closes for me, I remain committed to the values we’ve built together. Thank you for being here, for trusting me, and for being by my side for the last four years. We all deserve better, and I know that together, we can create it.”
While Planks continues to “process everything that has happened,” she promised to "continue to support everyone who calls out injustice and holds the people standing in their way accountable."
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Justin Baldoni’s former publicist files her own lawsuit.
According to The New York Times, Joneswork founder Stephanie Jones is suing Baldoni for breach of contract, claiming she was “forced out of representing Mr. Baldoni and his film studio amid concerns that Ms. Lively would go public with accusations of misconduct against him.”
On December 24, the Times reported that Jones was the source behind the WhatsApp messages and emails released in Lively’s lawsuit. Per the NYT, the emails and texts released in Lively’s lawsuit came from publicist Jennifer Abel’s company phone, which Jones gained access to after firing Abel from her company.
In her own lawsuit, per the Times, Jones says she fired Able for stealing documents from Joneswork while planning to start her own company. Jones alleges Abel and Nathan launched “a smear campaign against Lively” without Jones’s knowledge or approval. You can read the full report here.
Baldoni’s lawyer claims the actor’s countersuit will “shock everyone.”
After The Daily Mail UK reported that Baldoni will be filing a countersuit against Lively in January, Bryan Freedman released the following statement to Deadline:
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Among other complaints, The Daily Mail reported that Baldoni’s counterclaim will accuse Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloan of Vision PR of planting negative stories about Baldoni in the press.
According to Deadline, Sloan preemptively denied that allegation in a statement, claiming Melissa Nathan’s sister Sara Nathan (who works for the New York Post) forwarded Sloan an anonymous tip “regarding allegations of HR complaints on the set of It Ends with Us” back in August.
“After that, I was contacted by various press outlets asking about allegations of HR complaints,” Sloan said, adding that she responded to those inquiries by “referring them to Wayfarer or Sony for information regarding HR complaints.”
She continued, “It’s clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates are suggesting that I originated press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false. Please read Ms. Lively’s Complaint and the Complaint filed by Jonesworks LLC and Stephanie Jones, which provides the details of the campaign against my client.”
Blake Lively files another lawsuit in New York.
On December 31, 2024, Lively’s attorneys filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and other parties in New York federal court. According to Page Six, much of the complaint mirrors her California lawsuit. Her lawyer released the following statement to People:
Justin Baldoni sues The New York Times for $250 million.
On December 31, 2024, Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs (including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel) filed a lawsuit against The New York Times over the paper’s report on Blake Lively’s initial lawsuit, titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
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According to People, the plaintiffs are suing the publication for “libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of implied-in-fact contract.” Here is the statement of Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, to People:
According to People, the lawsuit claims the NYT “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” Baldoni’s complaint reportedly contains text messages that aim to disprove allegations of a manufactured smear campaign, with his lawyers alleging the director “consistently expressed his desire to avoid harming Lively and protect the Film but also recognized a legitimate need for public relations protection in light of Lively’s false and damaging claims.”
Baldoni’s suit reportedly lists “multiple examples” refuting claims from the Times report that were allegedly made out of context, though People only shared one of Baldoni’s alleged text exchanges with Lively. You can read Baldoni’s full complaint here.
The New York Times responds.
A New York Times spokesperson sent the following statement to People:
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In a statement to CNN, Lively’s lawyer said “nothing in this lawsuit changes anything” about Lively’s allegations, adding, “We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
We have a feeling things are only going to get even more litigious from here.
This article may be updated.
