An audio message that Blake Lively sent to Justin Baldoni was released in the ongoing legal back-and-forth between the “It Ends With Us” co-stars, offering an intimate glimpse into their professional and personal dynamic before everything fell apart.
Lively and Baldoni have been locked in a heated battle over what allegedly went down on the set of the drama in 2023. Months after filming wrapped, Lively accused her co-star of sexual harassment, claiming there were multiple uncomfortable encounters that occurred while she was portraying his love interest in the movie.
In the audio message, Lively said she “selfishly” wanted to push the start of filming “It Ends With Us.”
“Hey, I hope you’re so well. Just wanted to connect, just to put something on your radar,” Lively began her audio message, which was obtained by Fox News Digital. “So, between us, like this is so premature for me to even share this with you. All good, all good stuff. Headline is great, good, great stuff. But I was talking to Ryan, and I was like, I don’t know if we should share this, but he was like you guys have such a great trust, you know, filament.”
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Entertainment attorney Tre Lovell explained that the audio message doesn’t make or break the case for Baldoni, but admitted Lively’s ramblings “certainly support his narrative.”
“Nothing about these recordings reflect a ‘smoking gun’ in the litigation, but they further bolster Baldoni’s claims that this lawsuit has nothing to do with sexual harassment or retaliation on his part, but is about efforts by Lively to take over the production and control creative elements,” Lovell said.
LISTEN: BLAKE LIVELY’S AUDIO MESSAGE TO JUSTIN BALDONI RELEASED
In the audio message, Lively opened up about being extremely stressed by her back-to-back projects and revealed she didn’t have a close working relationship with the director of her other film.
“I don’t talk to him like I talk to you. So I haven’t told him, like, how stressed I’ve been with not having a baby nurse. Still don’t have one, by the way. I found someone, and she was only available for like five days,” Lively told Baldoni. “But anyway, still not a baby nurse, just the idea of going back to work right away. And also the idea of like… You know, prepping for our movie and like wanting to work out every day and all that. But yet being on set all day every day, I’m like, ‘What have I done?’”
Lively was juggling being a new mom at the time, having welcomed her fourth child with Ryan Reynolds in February 2023.
“Shooting in April, shooting in March is just too soon after having a baby and not sleeping and wanting to be in my best shape and all that,” she confided to Baldoni.
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Lively went on to float the idea of adjusting the production timeline, saying, “So, I just wanted to let you know that, like, in case you wanted to go a couple weeks earlier, you’re welcome to, and obviously there are selfish reasons I’m telling you this. I know that our schedules are scheduled. I’m not trying to move anything, but, like, if by chance you’re like, ‘Oh my God, if I could go two weeks earlier that would actually be great,’ then amazing.”
She added that, “selfishly,” she would love it if things moved because “Ryan and I have also been really stressed about spending a month apart… none of it’s your problem. That’s why I’m talking to you as a friend at this point more than anything.”
Lively’s audio message was likely used by Baldoni’s team to “create certain optics and to pressure Lively’s team,” entertainment attorney Jordan Matthews explained to Fox News Digital.
“Of course, the messages make it look like Lively may have been difficult to work with, since she was essentially demanding a change in the production schedule and this plays into Baldoni’s argument that she used these claims as leverage to get her way,” Matthews said. “Regardless, there is almost certainly more context and this case will very likely make it past the summary judgment stage and proceed to trial, so a jury can make the ultimate determination.”
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The newly-released audio could have an impact on a jury for myriad reasons, but primarily because they contrast with Lively’s allegations.
The “Age of Adaline” star accused Baldoni of sexual harassment while filming “It Ends With Us.” Lively claimed there were multiple uncomfortable encounters involving Baldoni and the film’s director, Jamey Heath.
“The allegations come off as if Justin Baldoni is this awful person who is harassing her, demeaning her, yelling at her, and then you have these voicemails from her that show her being nice and thankful to him,” Bryan Sullivan, partner at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP, told Fox News Digital.
“From a jury perspective … this is how a judge would look at it – Does this raise an issue of credibility of what she’s saying? And it could, because could a jury hearing this think that she is lying, exaggerating, misstating? Only remembering the bad stuff?”
He added, “The judge will not make credibility determinations if they see that there’s a credibility issue. They will deny the motion and let the jury decide.”
Oleg Nekritin, a defense attorney at the Law Offices of Robert J. DeGroot, agreed that the messages aren’t the end-all for the case.
“Generally, in a he said/she said case, courts rarely grant summary judgments,” DeGroot told Fox News Digital. “Instead, they permit the jury to make findings of fact about the allegations and defenses of the parties.”
Baldoni, in his own lawsuit filed in January 2025, insisted that Lively had “falsely” accused him in an attempt to repair her reputation following the fallout of the movie’s press tour after the actress allegedly took control of the film.
His lawsuit has since been dismissed.
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A trove of documents – including depositions, text messages and more – were released on Jan. 21 in support of Baldoni’s motion for summary judgment in Lively’s case against him.
Lively discussed a meeting held with Baldoni, Heath and the film’s producer, Alex Saks, during the actress’ July 31 deposition. She claimed she brought up the alleged incidents that had occurred on the film set during this meeting. Baldoni’s lawyer repeatedly questioned why Lively didn’t classify the encounters as “sexual harassment” during the meeting, instead choosing to refer to them as “HR claims.”
“I remember discussing the video that Jamey showed me. I remember discussing the – Jamey entering my trailer. And I remember – I don’t know if I told him this or if this is another thing that Ange shared, but how bad it felt for him to tell me personally that I felt sex – that I looked sexy and that I looked hot, and that I was also disturbed by the way that I understood Jenny to be feeling and experiences I’d seen with her,” Lively said, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
Despite using the term “HR claims” at the meeting, Lively claimed the actions she was describing were “pretty obviously sexual harassment.”
