Released in the summer of 2024, It Ends With Us – a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s controversial book – was a huge success, becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. However, recent news shows that behind the scenes, controversy would follow.
Blake Lively, known for her famous role in Gossip Girl, and Justin Baldoni, known for his directorial projects and role in Jane the Virgin, started working together on Baldoni’s newly directed movie, It Ends With Us, in 2019, where Lively was the main lead.
From it, Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Justin Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and a smear campaign against her. The lawsuit claims that Baldoni engaged in inappropriate behavior on set, including improvising unwanted kissing and looking at her while she was topless. Lively also says that Baldoni discussed his sex life, including encounters he said may not have been consensual and showed her a naked video of his wife.
Additionally, Lively says that after she reported the incidents, Baldoni and his team launched a smear campaign against her, using PR experts to damage her reputation. However, Lively’s reputation has already been damaged by the way she treats her employees and the reporters who have interviewed her; there are many videos out on how she behaves publicly.
Baldoni has denied the allegations, calling them “completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious.” His lawyer has also accused Lively of trying to rehabilitate her public image through the lawsuit. He is losing brand deals and jobs lined up for him despite saying he has not done anything to Lively. Justin is now suing his co-star for 4oo million dollars and claims he is going to release every text message he ever had with Blake.
Justin has had many female co-stars who claim that he would never do anything like that to a woman. For example, Gina Rodriguez, his co-star from Jane the Virgin, tells PEOPLE magazine that, “Justin is a sweet, sweet soul. Man, he’s a sweetie pie and I don’t believe it.”
The two were previously at odds over the film’s promotion, with Lively reportedly refusing to participate in joint interviews with Baldoni without explaining why. The promotion of the movie took several weeks and Lively and Baldoni are never seen in an interview together. The questions were always asked about what happened and why they were not talking to each other or following each other on any social media. The situation has blown into a huge scandal and more is coming out about it as time goes on.
