From Lively’s Perspective (Heart Opulencia ’27)
During the set of romance movie It Ends with Us, several truths about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who play main characters Lily and Ryle, have surfaced in the media, which resulted in ongoing lawsuits about Baldoni’s sexual harassment and disturbing behavior towards Lively.
The lawsuits started Dec. 20, 2024 when Blake Lively filed a California Civil Rights Department (CRD) complaint against Justin Baldoni, just four months after the It Ends with Us film debuted in theaters. Lively stated she and other cast members had “experienced invasive, unwelcoming, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behavior,” by Baldoni. Several accusations included sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate, prevent and/or remedy harassment, and the list goes on.
The New York Times had come out with a report about Lively’s complaints, leaving Baldoni and his legal team slamming the allegations and suing The New York Times. Various Hollywood stars such as America Ferrera and It Ends with Us author Colleen Hoover publicly show their support for Lively, while days later Baldoni’s voices of solidarity award had gotten revoked.
Recently, Baldoni released a video of the two of them during a scene talking, as it appeared to be Lively practically flirting with him. After the video surfaced, Lively dropped all her charges, but Baldoni still has charges against her so they will be going to court later this year.
Fans following the lawsuit have started to attack Lively because evidence was shown against her, so she dropped the charges after all the accusations she made against Baldoni. For months, everyone was showing their gratitude towards Lively but now upset that she won’t continue her fight against sexual harassment.
The sudden turn against Lively made supporters switch to Baldoni’s side. It has been claimed that Blake Lively used the lawsuit to build her character and tear down Baldoni, but now she has run away from the situation.
“I think she just got a lot of backlash from being really disrespectful in interviews and wanted to get the press back on her side again so she decided to file a lawsuit in order to seem like a victim,” Andrea Santamaria ‘26 stated.
From Baldoni’s Perspective (Valerie Vazquez ’26)
Justin Baldoni, who not only played Ryle in Colleen Hoover’s infamous novel “It Ends With Us” but also directed the book to movie film adaptation, decided to take matters into his own hands by composing his very own countersuit against Blake Lively to argue and deny the claims made against him about sexual harassment by stating that it was an attempt to ruin his career in the film industry.
On February 2, 2025 Baldoni released a website that contained private text messages between the two co-stars that they contained a professional relationship and nothing more as Lively was trying to insinuate. Through the release of their conversations, it was brought to light what truly happened behind closed doors and provided more context towards the counter suit since everything was consensual.
“I feel very conflicted about the situation because I didn’t believe everything at first up until I saw his shared messages and all of his evidence so now I have a whole new perspective when it comes to Justin’s countersuit, but I still think he definitely crossed some boundaries,” Avery Aaron ‘26 stated.
On January 21, 2025 Justin’s legal team released some behind the scenes footage of the two co-stars during the filming of “It Ends WIth Us” to further support his claim that throughout filming they acted in a professional manner. The scene showed them performing a more intimate scene by slow dancing with each other which continues to counter Lively’s accusations suggesting that their interactions weren’t entirely preceded with harassment.
According to CNN’s Alli Rosenbloom, a writer for Entertainment, stated that after the footage of Baldoni was released it “clearly refutes Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior.” However, Lively continues to claim that she still felt uncomfortable and that the evidence does not accurately represent her side of the story. Her team began to refute that the footage was taken out of context even after it clearly depicted their relationship throughout the filming process.
“I don’t think it was exactly sexual harassment but more of the fact that they had some conflict going on behind the scenes and she’s taking things out of context to levy her way up,” Francesca Gregoryan ‘25 stated.
As the case continues to unfold, both sides remain firm on their stances. Through legal action and public statements, Baldoni will continue to push back asserting that the truth will come to light and Lively will continue to claim that he made her feel uncomfortable while filming. The truth, whatever it may be, will have lasting repercussions for both stars.
