Justin Baldoni and wife Emily break silence on Blake Lively legal battle
Following two years of silence amidst a bitter legal battle with former co-star Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni has finally spoken out.
Sharing an emotional video alongside his wife, Emily, on Wednesday (8 Jul), the actor recalled the 'injustice' and 'trauma' they've allegedly been subjected to by Lively and her attorneys.
Lively, 38, filed a lawsuit in December 2024, accusing It Ends With Us co-lead and director Baldoni of having sexually harassed her on the set of the romantic drama, as well as orchestrating a smear campaign after she raised her concerns with producers.
In response, Baldoni denied the allegations and filed a suit of his own against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, accusing the A-list pair of defamation, extortion, and attempting to destroy his career. His complaint was quickly thrown out of court last June, however.
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In May of this year, he and Lively reached a confidential settlement, with neither side admitting wrongdoing or paying the other any damages, rather than taking the case to court.
What remains, however, is a request from Gossip Girl actress Lively for $8 million in legal fees, which Baldoni's team contests.
Responding publicly to the headline-hitting legal battle this week, Baldoni began his latest social media upload by telling his followers: "We have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say.
"Because lord knows we have, but it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to."
He added: "It just didn’t feel like the right time, and we were talking about it and feeling into it and praying about it."
Chiming in, his wife, Emily, told viewers, 'This feels like the moment', adding, 'There’s so much to say'.
Baldoni emphasised, however, that the couple wouldn't be discussing the entire legal case, but instead, claimed they have 'immense gratitude' for those who stood by their side.
"So many people and so many things that have happened to us," the 42-year-old continued. "Gratitude has saved us."
Despite their appreciation, Emily - who married the Jane the Virgin actor in 2023 - insisted that support from fans doesn't 'negate the injustice and the pain that we have also felt in the last few years'.
"We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things, like how could something like this even happen?" she asked. "Let alone disguised as a fight for women. So much to unpack."
She added that her family have endured 'a lot of trauma' since the celebrity feud ensued.
Baldoni agreed: "We don’t even know if this is the right thing to say. We just know we need to share something.
"What I will say is that there have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence over the last couple of years. That created so much noise, and we didn’t want to add to the noise. So we just wanted to let the justice system run its course."
Giving his followers an insight into how his and Emily's lives had changed since Lively filed her initial suit, he went on: "We are healing. If you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear.
"It looks different every day. We have had to rethink for ourselves what is real, and what matters. It’s this. It’s our family, it’s our friends, it’s our community, who have been there for us, it’s our faith."
If anything, Baldoni added, the situation has brought him and Emily 'closer' and made them 'more devoted and steadfast in our faith'.
He continued: "So many of you had discernment, and you used your intuition, and you trusted that. You have given your time to fight for us. Thank you does not feel like enough. But we’re here, in large part, because of so many of you, and all of our friends and family."
Wrapping up the clip, the father-of-two - who shares two children, Maiya and Maxwell, with Emily - reflected on the hardest lesson they were forced to wrap their heads around.
"When God presses the reset button, and everything else is stripped away, that’s when love shows up," Baldoni concluded.
Emily lastly added: "And it did. There’s so much more to say. The time will come.
"But for now, we are going to focus on continuing the healing and hanging out with our kiddos and enjoying life."
Topics: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Celebrity, US News, Entertainment
Rhianna Benson