Blake Lively’s Alleged Texts Used as Evidence in Justin Baldoni Lawsuit

It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni fired back at Blake Lively’s claims of sexual harassment as part of his $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times by submitting the actress’ alleged text messages, In Touch can exclusively report.
Justin, 40, and his legal team included several texts messages, obtained by In Touch, allegedly sent by Blake, 37, to refute her claims. In his suit, Justin claims The NY Times wrote a one-sided story based on a complaint Blake filed with the California Civil Rights Department.
Justin’s lawyers claimed the story pushed “Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motiv ran a story that was one-sided.”
The NY Times denied the accusations.
A spokesperson for The New York Times said, “Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported” and based on a review of “thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and email that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”
Blake filed her own lawsuit days after her petition with the California Civil Rights Department became public. She accused Justin of sexual harassment and retaliation.
She claimed he hired crisis publicists to smear her after she complained about his alleged behavior on set.
Blake included texts messages from the crisis PR reps as part of her effort to prove the smear campaign. Justin denied he was inappropriate on set or that he had conducted a smear campaign against her.
One issue Blake raised was Justin and producer Jamey Heath talking about their past sexual relationships with other people.

In addition, she claimed Justin referred to women on set as “sexy.” Blake claimed the two men entered her trailer unannounced on multiple occasions while she was getting dressed.
The actress said Jamey walked in one time “while she was topless and having body makeup removed by makeup artists.”
“Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath were also constantly hugging and touching cast and crew,” the complaint read. “When Ms. Lively or others avoided this touching, Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath would retaliate by becoming irritated, cold, and uncollaborative. The result was an unwelcoming and mercurial environment for Ms. Lively, her employees, and others on set.”
In his lawsuit against The New York Times, Justin addressed some of Blake’s claims. First, he attached a text message she sent showing her describe a character as “sexier” when talking about wardrobe.
“The allegation that Baldoni inappropriately described Lively’s character’s attire as ‘sexy’ is exaggerated and misleading. The text exchanges between Baldoni and Lively show that Lively had insisted that her character’s clothing be ‘much sexier.’ When Baldoni later used the word ‘sexy,’ he was just responding to her creative input, not objectifying her personally. Lively set the tone that Baldoni heeded during the creative process,” his lawyer wrote.

In regard to coming into her trailer uninvited, Justin’s lawyer said, “Lively also established very early that it was acceptable to be present while Lively was breastfeeding. Both Heath and Baldoni have children, and are comfortable around breastfeeding mothers, and Lively seemed equally comfortable. In fact, Baldoni’s wife cofounded a company that makes a breastfeeding garment, a prototype that originated with his mother when he was a baby. And as revealed in a text message exchange between Baldoni and Lively less than two weeks into filming, Lively invited Baldoni to her trailer to rehearse lines while she was pumping breast milk. Lively now alleges in the CRD Complaint that Baldoni and/or Heath would enter her makeup trailer of their own volition while she was breastfeeding. Notably, breastfeeding was an activity she often conducted openly in the presence of both Baldoni and Heath, including during production meetings.”
His lawyer included a text showing Blake had invited them into her trailer at least once.
Regarding the time Jamey allegedly came in while she was partly undressed, the lawyer said, “Lively suggests Heath walked in her trailer unannounced while “in state of undress” and topless, which is false. Heath was invited into her trailer, along with a female producer, Baldoni, and a Sony representative for a meeting requested by Lively. Mr. Heath arrived first to see if Lively was ready for the meeting, and after knocking and being invited in, saw that Lively was breastfeeding. She was not topless.”

The lawyer continued, “She was having makeup removed from her collar bone while fully-covered. Heath asked if they should return at a later time. Lively said no, they could move forward with the meeting as initially planned and would meet them after she finished removing makeup. Roughly two weeks later Lively announced that she thought she had seen Heath make eye contact with her. Heath immediately apologized and said he hadn’t even realized he looked her way, in response to which Lively remarked, ‘I know you weren’t trying to cop a look.’ A reference to this incident conveniently showed up on a document months later, distorted like the others and out of context, in a list that the Times later published as fact.”
Justin denied the claims in Blake’s lawsuit through his powerhouse lawyer Bryan Freedman. He said the claims filed by Blake were “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.”
Blake’s lawyers said, “Earlier today, Ms. Lively filed a federal complaint against Wayfarer Studios and others in the Southern District of New York. Ms. Lively previously sent her California Civil Rights Department Complaint in response to the retaliatory campaign Wayfarer launched against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Unfortunately, Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns. Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”