Blake Lively Responds to Justin Baldoni's New $400 Million Lawsuit

Blake Lively has responded through its legal team Justin Baldoni the studio is filing a new lawsuit against her, her publicist Leslie Sloan and her husband Ryan Reynolds.

Submission obtained by Us Weekly Thursday, January 16 is seeking $400 million in damages and accuses Lively, 37, of being “committed to making Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to avoid her alleged “tone-deaf” publicity It ends with usa film that Baldoni, 40, and Lively worked on together. The suit also includes allegations of civil extortion, defamation, false invasion of privacy among other claims.

Lively's legal team hit out at the “desperation” strategy of the Baldoni camp, sharing a statement with Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, in response.

“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and Associates, is another chapter in the abuser's playbook. It's an age-old story: a woman comes forward with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation, and the abuser tries to target the victim. This is what the experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse victim offender,” the statement said. “Wayfarer has chosen to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch frivolous lawsuits and threaten legal action to suppress the public's ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation for sexual harassment allegations.”

Related: Justin Baldoni's studio is suing Blake Lively and Reynolds for $400 million

Justin Baldoni's studio has filed a new lawsuit against his “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively and her publicist Leslie Sloane, seeking $400 million in damages. According to Us Weekly's filing on Thursday, January 16, Lively, 37, was “committed to making Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to avoid her (…)

Lively's legal team accused Baldoni's team of trying to “shift” attention to Lively and away from Baldoni himself.

“They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and estranged herself from Mr. Baldoni. Evidence will show that actors and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and the Wayfarer. The evidence will also show that Ms. Lively was asked by Sony to oversee Sony's cut of the film, which they subsequently optioned for distribution and achieved great success,” the statement said.

The statement continued: “Their response to allegations of sexual harassment: she wanted it, it's her fault. Their reasoning for why this happened to her: Look what she was wearing. In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy to attack the woman is desperate, does not refute the evidence in Ms Lively's complaint and will fail.

Baldoni claimed that the feud between him and Lively began in May 2023, when the film began. He claimed that Lively created a “takeover strategy” while they battled for creative control.

The documents include emails between Baldoni and Lively before filming began, with Baldoni claiming that Lively “expressed heartfelt thanks” for the preparation but believed she would try to gain control.

Baldoni claimed that Lively had not read It ends with us. The lawsuit says, “she even tried to Google her character's hair color instead of picking up the book.”

After the lawsuit, Baldoņa's lawyer Brian Friedman, shared a message to the addressee We“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of undisputed evidence detailing a duplicitous attempt by Blake Lively and her team to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies through the media's distribution of grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and distorted information. “

Related: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Drama Explained

UPDATE 1/25/16 at 12:43 PM ET: Justine Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against It Ends With Us actor Blake Lively and her publicist Leslie Sloane on Thursday, Jan. 16, at Wayfarer Studios. Us Weekly Baldoni claimed that Lively was “determined” to make him a “real-life villain in her story.” (…)

The statement continued: “Based on our own willingness to provide all of the complete text messages, emails, video footage and other documentary evidence shared between the parties in real time, it is clear that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret. Blake Lively or either her team was seriously misled, or it intentionally and knowingly misled the truth.

“Ms. “Never again will Lively be allowed to continue to exploit the true victims of real-life harassment for the sole purpose of her personal reputation at the expense of those without power,” the statement read. “Let's not forget, Ms. Lively and her team, for horribly selfish reasons, tried to destroy reputations and livelihoods by dangerously manipulating the media themselves before they even started any real legal action. We know the truth and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, the documents don't lie.

Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni for comment.