Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Getty Images (2)
Blake Lively reportedly requested a protective order in light of her and It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni’s ongoing legal battle.
Lively, 37, and husband Ryan Reynolds submitted a letter to a judge on Thursday, February 20, Us Weekly can confirm, to ask for a stronger protective order than the one they were granted. (Lively was previously issued a standard PO after the lawsuits were initially filed.)
“As detailed in Ms. Lively’s Amended Complaint, Ms. Lively, her family, other members of the cast, various fact witnesses, and individuals that have spoken out publicly in support of Ms. Lively have received violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications,” the letter reads, adding Lively is now seeking “additional protections.”
Team Baldoni responded to Lively’s protective order request on Friday, telling Us in a statement, “Anyone receiving violent messages by anonymous parties is abhorrent. When private parties were wrongfully accused by Lively and her paid team of wrongdoing, they received continuous death threats and visits to private homes where young children reside after their addresses were leaked on her initial complaints. No one should have to face that, especially private parties who do not have means for security detail. We do not condone dangerous rhetoric targeted toward anyone no matter the situation.”
Lively named Baldoni, 41, in a December 2024 lawsuit, claiming that he sexually harassed her and fostered a “hostile work environment” on the set of 2024’s It Ends With Us. She amended her complaint earlier this month, also detailing the “emotional impact” of the legal fallout.
“The emotional impact on Ms. Lively has been extreme, not only affecting her, but her family, including her husband and four children,” court docs obtained by Us read. “There are days when she has struggled to get out of bed, and she frequently chooses not to venture outside in public.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Courtesy Sony Pictures Ent.
Lively’s attorneys further claimed that the actress has “fought to maintain her personal life and business interests” despite the legal proceedings.
“Behind closed doors, she has suffered from grief, fear, trauma and extreme anxiety,” the filing adds. “She also has been experiencing repeated and painful physical symptoms as a result of this experience.”
The documents also mention alleged “threats and harassment” that Lively has received on social media.
“The threats and harassment are not limited to Ms. Lively,” the docs continue. “Any individual with even a tangential connection with the underlying events faces attack and the inevitable emotional consequence of feeling targeted and shamed. … Other cast members have received threats, online harassment, and floods of comments to their social media accounts.”
Blake Lively has responded via her legal team to Justin Baldoni’s studio filing a new lawsuit against her, her publicist Leslie Sloan and her husband Ryan Reynolds. The filing, obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, seeks damages of $400 million and accuses Lively, 37, of being “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain […]
Lively further claimed in the complaint that Reynolds, 47, and the couple’s four young children were also affected by the drama.
“Mr. Reynolds, too, has been affected mentally, physically, and professionally by his wife’s and children’s pain,” the docs argue. “Worst of all, however, has been the impact on their young children, who have been traumatized and emotionally uprooted in ways that have substantially impacted their well-being.”
Lively also alleged that two of her It Ends With Us colleagues previously accused Baldoni of misconduct on set, which he vehemently denied.
“Our clients have been transparent in providing receipts, real time documents and video showing a completely different story than what has been manipulated and cherry-picked to the media,” Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement to Us on Wednesday, February 19. “Our clients have taken this matter and these issues very seriously notwithstanding the jokes made publicly by the plaintiff and her husband.”
The statement continued, “Her underwhelming amended complaint is filled with unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons who are clearly no longer willing to come forward or publicly support her claims. Since documents do not lie and people do, the upcoming depositions of those who initially supported Ms. Lively’s false claims and those who are witnesses to her own behavior will be enlightening. What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively’s lack of actual evidence.”
Baldoni has denied all of Lively’s allegations, filing a $400 defamation suit in January that claimed the Gossip Girl alum was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to mask her reported “tone-deaf” promotion of the film. Lively denied the accusations.
