Even before it premiered in August of 2024, the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel, It Ends With Us, was plagued by rumors of behind-the-scenes drama, culminating in legal action from both its lead actors, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. While it’s clear that tension between the two emerged in the course of making the film, that’s about the only surety. Both sides have given very different versions of events: While Lively alleges it stems from Baldoni’s inappropriate and harassing behavior during filming, Baldoni (also the film’s director and producer) claims trouble started after Lively (successfully) angled to take over creative control of the film.
Amidst the film’s release, Lively faced public backlash for her seemingly tone deaf promotion of the film, which centers on domestic violence. This prompted her to file a legal complaint against Baldoni and others from his production and publicity team, accusing them of launching a smear campaign against her, and including text messages appearing to demonstrate this point.
In response, Baldoni and his camp have filed lawsuits against The New York Times (who published the piece “’We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside A Hollywood Smear Machine”), and Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, detailing their alleged effort to oust Baldoni from the film, as we all as what he claims are false accusations against him and misleading information presented in the initial complaint. And, notably, the much-discussed “Khaleesi” texts, allegedly from Lively.
“Allegedly” is the operative word with all of these texts. Both primary players in this surprisingly public dispute have an agenda being served by the complaints outlined in their lawsuits and the information being made public. Which means that every claim and even the provenance of the texts themselves should be taken with a massive grain of salt. So just as the texts from Lively’s suit played to her claims about Baldoni, so too do these texts play to his claims about Lively, and all should be read as highly suspicious.
For clarity’s sake, we’ve outlined the key players and references (aside from Baldoni and Lively) in the text messages:
IEWU: It Ends With Us
Wayfarer Studios: Production company behind It Ends With Us, co-founded and co-chaired by Baldoni
Jennifer Abel: Publicist for Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer
Melissa Nathan: Crisis Communications Specialist, TAG owner
TAG: The Agency Group PR LLC, Melissa Nathan’s PR company
Jamey Heath: CEO of Wayfarer, Producer on It Ends With Us
Ryan Reynolds: Director/actor, Blake Lively’s husband
Sony: It Ends With Us distributor
Leslie Sloane: Blake Lively’s publicist
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‘Blake’s Reasons For Not Wanting To Read The Book’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath
Context: Baldoni’s lawsuit uses the text as evidence for the claim that Lively insisted “on total control over every aspect of the Film she could get her hands on” despite not having read or understood the source material.
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‘I’m Khaleesi’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni
Context: According to the complaint filed by Baldoni, this text exchange occurred after Lively expressed a desire to rewrite the film’s pivotal “rooftop” scene herself.
Baldoni was allegedly reluctant but agreed to look at Lively’s version. His complaint claims that he “diplomatically told her that the scene would likely end up being somewhere between the original version and Lively’s version,” but that he was then pressured by Ryan Reynolds and her “megacelebrity” friend (who many people have surmised to be Taylor Swift) about using Lively’s writing.
In the text allegedly from Lively, this prompts the comparison, “I’m Khaleesi, and like her I happen to have a few dragons.”
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‘This Is Bad’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: IEWU Producer, Jamey Heath
Context: This text supposedly refers to Lively’s increasing reach for creative control over the film, which conflicted with the scheduled production and financials for the film.
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‘We Are Not Aware Of Any Writing Services Rendered By Ryan Reynolds’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Sony Legal Affairs, Wayfarer Counsel
Context: This email exchange reportedly took place after Lively’s red carpet interview at the film’s New York premiere, where she stated: “The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now.”
The Wayfarer complaint says this was the first they’d heard of Reynolds making any changes to the script and contradicts Lively’s previous story about her own writing of the scene.
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‘You Will Look Amazing’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Justin Baldoni, Blake Lively
Context: Reports on Lively’s side had accused Baldoni of fat-shaming the actress, who had recently had a baby at the time of filming.
Baldoni’s team claims the actor only ever asked about Lively’s weight to his personal trainer, due to concerns about a back injury and a scene where he’d have to lift his co-star.
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‘I’m Just Pumping In My Trailer’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni
Context: This text is included in contrast to a bombshell New York Times report detailing Baldoni’s uncomfortable behavior and alleged harassment on set, including walking in on Lively uninvited while she was breastfeeding.
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‘Justin Has Bent Over Backwards For Her’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: IEWU editors, Justin Baldoni
Context: The complaint alleges these exchanges occurred after Lively further inserted herself into other creative roles for the film, including editing. Baldoni seems to give in to Lively’s demands to be involved in the film’s edit, citing “what’s best for the movie is that I suck it up and let her in.”
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‘Men Are Such Pigs’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: IEWU editors, Justin Baldoni
Context: The film’s original editors claim their cut of the film, compared to Lively’s, is performing well in all demographics but one.
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‘She Kicked Me Out Officially’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Jennifer Abel, Justin Baldoni
Context: According to the complaint, Lively ultimately told Sony that she (alongside the rest of the cast) would not promote the film if Baldoni’s cut was used, and refused to attend Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza event if Baldoni was in attendance, essentially icing him out.
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‘We Made A Beautiful Baby Together’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: IEWU editors, Justin Baldoni
Context: Per the lawsuit, after Lively’s ultimatum that she would not promote the film unless her demands were met, Baldoni decided to give up creative control over the movie rather than killing it altogether, which meant that he was unable to see the final cut of the film he’d directed.
These exchanges are allegedly between Baldoni and editors who were let go after editing power went to Lively.
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‘Not Me’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Jennifer Abel, Melissa Nathan
Context: Blake Lively’s legal complaint included a number of text messages between Baldoni’s PR team that suggested they’d been planting media stories and waging a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni’s complaint purports to show parts of the text message exchanges that were purposefully excluded, such as this thread where Nathan says that a negative Daily Mail story about Lively was not put forth by her.
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‘We Are Dealing With A Psychopath’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Jennifer Abel, Melissa Nathan
Context: Lively’s complaint shows Abel and Nathan discussing how “lucky” Baldoni is that her claims of sexual harassment have not been getting press.
However, according to Baldoni’s suit, further replies categorizing those claims as untrue and likening them to the claims of a “psychopath” (Lively), were excluded.
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‘Justin Is Essentially The Only One Appreciating The Subject Matter’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Jamey Heath, Sony Team
Context: Lively received backlash for promoting her hair care line and alcohol brand during promotion for the film, rather than centering the conversation about domestic violence.
Lively’s side has claimed this was part of the agreed-upon positive marketing strategy around female empowerment, while Wayfarer’s complaint suggests they’d “always” had a concern about ignoring the film’s darker subject matter and suggest listening to the criticisms from fans.
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‘Can You Please Confirm We Are Not Doing Any Of That?’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Justin Baldoni, TAG Team
Context: Baldoni appears to express concern with the idea that his PR team would be using bots or that people might think they are planting negative stories, which, according to Nathan and Abel, are actually the result of Lively’s mismanaged PR.
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‘None Of Us Would Ever Do This’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: Justin Baldoni, Melissa Nathan
Context: Baldoni and Nathan appear to discuss their PR strategy, including to “concentrate on the success of the movie,” and the idea that the sentiment against Lively has emerged organically.
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‘That Happened Organically’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: TAG Team
Context: Members of Baldoni’s PR team purportedly discuss Lively’s inappropriate promo for a movie about domestic violence, specifically stating it was not part of their strategy to call her out for this.
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‘Leslie Thinks We Placed This One As Well’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: TAG Team
Context: Tag employees appear concerned at the continued accusations from Lively’s camp that they’re planting stories.
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‘It’s All Blake’s EGO’
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- Justin Baldoni et al v. Blake Lively et al
Between: TMZ reporter, Melissa Nathan
Context: A TMZ reporter appears to discuss what they’ve heard about the feud; Nathan again seems to refute that the negative press about Blake is coming from her team.
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