Justin Baldoni, the director of It Ends With Us, is taking his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, to court. He claims she leaked private text messages, which sparked a big legal fight with Blake Lively. This lawsuit was filed in a New York federal court on March 21.
Baldoni and his current publicist, Jennifer Abel, say Jones broke confidentiality rules by sharing sensitive messages. These messages became key evidence in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni.
According to Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, “It is undeniable that Stephanie Jones initiated this catastrophic sequence of events by violating the most basic of privacy rights, as well as any remaining trust her clients held,” per a statement to PEOPLE.
The trouble started mid last year when there were reports of a falling out between Baldoni and Lively. At the time, Jones was working for Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios. However, as things got worse, Abel took over handling the situation.
Things escalated in December 2024 when Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during filming and said he was trying to damage her reputation. The New York Times reported on thousands of text messages and emails that seemed to come from Abel’s phone. This phone was taken by Jones’ company after Abel said she was leaving to start her own business.
The lawsuit claims that Jones, after being fired by Wayfarer, shared messages from Abel’s phone with Lively’s team. This was done without a subpoena according to the complaint, and the information was used to build a case against Baldoni and his associates.
“Jones [had] turned over the contents of Abel’s phone to Lively and her team — without a subpoena — so they could slice and dice her communications to construct a false narrative about the source of Lively’s bad publicity. In turning over these materials to Lively, Jones knew full well that the blowback would engulf not only Abel but also her clients, Wayfarer and Baldoni. As a result of Jones’ malicious scheme, Abel’s life has been turned upside down. Her career and reputation have been destroyed, her private information leaked, and her email inbox and social media pages filled with a daily stream of death threats and abuse,” the complaint said.
In contrast, when the New York Times published their initial article about Blake Lively’s claims, they reported that they had reviewed “thousands of pages of text messages and emails that she obtained through a subpoena”.
Jones’ lawyer, Kristin Tahler, has said that Jones’ lawsuit against Baldoni and Abel is based on facts and evidence. She claims they were trying to destroy Jones’ business.
In December 2024, Jones actually filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni and Abel.
“Jones discovered the breadth and intensity of Abel and Nathan’s duplicity from these records,” her lawsuit explains, per Variety.
Jones’ lawsuit also claims that Jones that Abel and Nathan “secretly conspired” to undermine her reputation while blaming her for the alleged smear campaign against Lively.
This legal battle is part of a bigger saga involving multiple lawsuits. Baldoni has also sued Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for defamation. Meanwhile, Lively is trying to get Baldoni’s lawsuit dismissed, calling it an attempt to silence her.
The It Ends With Us controversy now includes six lawsuits, making it one of Hollywood’s most complicated legal dramas. It also doesn’t look like drama will be simmering down any time soon as the trial date for Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s legal battle has been scheduled for March 2026.
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