Justin Baldoni has finally broken his silence. The actor-director, best known for helming the 2024 romantic drama It Ends with Us, was spotted at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday, January 17, marking his first public appearance since filing a $400 million lawsuit against his co-star Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist Leslie Sloane.
Justin Baldoni Finally Breaks Silence
When approached by TMZ at the airport, Baldoni, 40, shared a brief comment on how he’s handling the controversy. “Grateful to be with the family, man,” he said, adding, “We have amazing friends and family. Faith … faith.”
This comes weeks after Lively’s December 20, 2024, lawsuit, in which she alleged sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign against Baldoni and his associates. Lively’s legal filing paints a troubling picture of the set environment during the filming of It Ends with Us, alleging Baldoni pressured her into unprofessional and invasive situations, including entering her trailer uninvited and pushing for unscripted physical intimacy without an intimacy coordinator present.
As the lawsuits escalate, both sides’ attorneys have released fiery statements. Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman defended his client, asserting, “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team, and their respective companies.” Freedman added that his team’s willingness to provide unaltered documentation — including text messages, emails, and video footage — proves Baldoni’s case.
Lively’s legal team, however, has dismissed Baldoni’s claims as retaliatory. “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation, and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” her attorneys said in a statement. They further described Baldoni’s lawsuit as a textbook example of DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender), a tactic often used to discredit accusers.
This legal drama is unfolding against a backdrop of mounting tensions between Baldoni and Lively during and after the production of It Ends with Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. According to Lively’s legal filing, Sony, the film’s distributor, asked her to oversee the final cut of the movie, which ultimately became a commercial success. Baldoni’s camp has countered this narrative, accusing Lively and her team of manipulating the media and the legal system to damage his reputation.
Baldoni has also filed a separate $250 million lawsuit against the New York Times for alleged libel, claiming the publication misrepresented evidence from Lively’s complaint in a December article.