Emily Baldoni is supporting her husband Justin Baldoni amid his ongoing legal battle with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
On January 25, Justin’s wife shared a family photo on Instagram with the caption, “Happy birthday my love. Celebrating the man, husband, and father that you are. I’d choose you again and again.” According to People, Emily and Justin Baldoni have been spending time in Hawaii with their two children as his lawyer, Bryan Freedman, continues to face off against Lively’s legal team in and outside of court.
Back in December, Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni for sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us, also accusing the director of embarking on a smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation. In response, Baldoni is suing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for defamation and extortion.
Recently, Baldoni’s legal team released “raw” footage from the set of It Ends With Us, which they claim helps prove Lively mischaracterized their interactions during production. However, Lively’s team says “every frame” of the video corroborates Lively’s version of events.
“The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character,” Lively’s lawyers wrote in their statement, per People. Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present.”
In one moment from the dialogue-free slow dance scene, Lively suggests talking would make the scene more “romantic,” which seems to spark a discussion of their relationships with their real-life spouses. “I know you and Ryan talk all the time,” Baldoni says to Lively, to which she replies, “Oh my gosh, we don’t shut up.”
In contrast, Baldoni says he and his wife Emily can “just look at each other” for upwards of five minutes. “I think you would find that terrifying,” he tells Lively.
She laughs and responds, “Yeah. I’d be like, ‘oh no, I found a sociopath.” You can watch the 10-minute footage here.
Though Baldoni’s lawyers have promised to release “all correspondence as well as relevant videos that quash her claims” on an upcoming website, Lively’s legal team has reportedly called for a hearing to stop Baldoni’s lawyers from “making further defamatory, and retaliatory, statements relating to Ms. Lively.”
According to CNN, Lively’s lawyers intend to seek a “protective order to govern further proceedings in this case,” and are calling for a hearing “given the imminent harm caused by Mr. Freedman’s misleading and selective statements and leaks.”
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