Her lawyers claim Justin Baldoni’s “false narrative crumbles under the indisputable truth” that Lively “was not alone in complaining about” him
Blake Lively filed an amended version of her complaint in the ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
The 163-page filing landed in New York federal court late on Tuesday, Feb. 18, as the actress, 37, updated her lawsuit, which was originally filed Dec. 31, against her It Ends With Us costar Baldoni and others.
According to her lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, this version “provides significant additional evidence and corroboration of her original claims” and “includes previously undisclosed communications” involving Lively, Sony, Wayfarer Studios and “numerous other witnesses.”
Hudson and Gottlieb added that the amended complaint “also added a new claim for defamation,” which they allege is “based on the repeated false statements the defendants have made about Ms. Lively since she filed her original complaint, and adds Jed Wallace and his company as defendants.” (Wallace is separately suing Lively and has denied being part of any smear campaign.)
At one point in the amended complaint, Lively’s lawyers write that Baldoni and the other defandants’ “false narrative crumbles under the indisputable truth” that Lively “was not alone in complaining about Mr. Baldoni and raised her concerns contemporaneously as they arose in 2023, not in connection with some imagined power play for control of the film in 2024.”
A spokesperson for Lively says the amended complaint “details the corroboration that backs up Blake’s original sexual harassment and retaliation concerns.” The spokesperson claims it shows that “other women confided in Blake about their discomfort and fear of coming forward, and their concern about the current public vitriol.”
Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE on Wednesday, Feb. 19, “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. Our clients have taken this matter and these issues very seriously notwithstanding the jokes made publicly by the plaintiff and her husband.”
“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,” continued Freedman. “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.”
According to Lively’s amended complaint, her legal team chose not to name certain witnesses in order to “protect innocent bystanders rather than exposing them to further harm” amid the “dangerous climate of threats, harassment and intimidation” surrounding the case. However, the witnesses gave Lively “permission to share the substance of their communications,” they say, and agreed “they will testify and produce responsive documents in the discovery process.”
On Jan. 31, Baldoni, 41, amended his own countersuit against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist and The New York Times, which he published on a website for his followers to access his court filings.
Lively and Baldoni’s case is currently set to go to trial in March 2026. Attorneys for both sides recently opted out of mediation.
In the discovery process, Lively’s attorneys last week said they issued subpoenas for Baldoni’s phone records, which they feel “will expose the people, tactics and methods that have worked to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ [Lively’s] reputation and family over the past year.”
In response, Baldoni’s lawyers argued the subpoenas are too wide-ranging and referred to them as a “massive fishing expedition” that shows her attorneys “are desperately seeking any factual basis for their provably false claims,” adding, “They will find none.”
At a pre-trial hearing earlier in February, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman warned both parties not to litigate their suits through the media and that he could set an earlier trial date if the public relations battle continues.