It Ends with Us is a 2024 American romantic drama film directed by Justin Baldoni from a screenplay by Christy Hall, based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover. The film stars Blake Lively alongside Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, and Hasan Minhaj. The story follows florist Lily Bloom (Lively), whose troubled relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) is compounded when her ex-boyfriend Atlas Corrigan (Sklenar) re-enters her life.
On December 20, 2024, Lively filed a legal complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, and their studio Wayfarer of creating a hostile work environment and retaliating against her for reporting misconduct. She also filed a lawsuit against Baldoni for sexual harassment and causing her emotional distress. According to the legal filing, she claimed Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, Heath had shown her a video of his wife giving birth naked, and both men repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, among other inappropriate actions. Documents obtained by Lively via subpoena claimed to show that Baldoni and his agents ran a public relations campaign to damage her reputation, which involved social media manipulation, planting negative stories, and amplifying criticism of her. Lively alleged that this was done in retaliation for her raising concerns and seeking protections on set.
Baldoni was dropped by the talent agency WME in response to the allegations and reporting; he denied the allegations through his lawyer.The following day, Baldoni's publicist stated that his PR team had "sophomorically reveled" in the Lively coverage, yet "although we were prepared, we didn't have to do anything over the top to protect our client.
Lively's civil rights complaint also named businessman Steve Sarowitz, a co-founder of Wayfarer Studio; Jed Wallace and his company Street Relations Inc; crisis manager Melissa Nathan and her company The Agency Group PR LLC; and publicist Jennifer Abel and her company RWA Communications.
Baldoni's former publicist Stephanie Jones also filed a defamation lawsuit which alleged that her former employee Jennifer Abel and crisis communications manager Melissa Nathan attempted to cover up Baldoni's on-set behavior while It Ends With Us was being filmed. Jones' lawsuit also alleged that efforts were made to undermine her reputation.
On December 31, 2024, Baldoni responded with a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times, saying that the newspaper had defamed him.
Initially, Baldoni did not file a lawsuit against Lively. However, Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's attorney in the lawsuit against The New York Times, in an interview with Megyn Kelly, said that he would sue Lively "into oblivion", and sue several others in the case as well, including Stephanie Jones and Ryan Reynolds.Freedman alleged that Reynolds' character of Nicepool in Deadpool & Wolverine was based on Baldoni, given their nearly identical hairstyle and jokes in regards to Lively's Ladypool character and her baby.On January 16, 2025, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and Leslie Sloane, Lively's PR representative, alleging extortion, defamation and breach of contract, seeking at least $400 million in damages.
On January 23, Lively's legal team filed a gag order against Freedman, accusing him of continuing to engage in a smear campaign against Lively by repeatedly revealing information to the press.