Insider Reveals How Long Blake Lively Has Been Planning A Lawsuit Against Justin Baldoni

Blake Lively’s legal action against her “It Ends with Us” co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, has reportedly been carefully planned for quite some time, according to a source close to the actress.

The complaint, which serves as a precursor to a discrimination lawsuit in California, accuses Baldoni of multiple instances of misconduct during the film’s production. Among the allegations are claims that Baldoni showed Lively explicit images and videos, asked invasive questions about her personal sex life, and attempted to include intimate scenes in the movie that had not been part of their original agreement.

Not long after Blake Lively’s brother-in-law suggested that her complaints were raised during filming, another insider reinforced those claims.

The legal filing reveals that a meeting was convened to discuss Justin Baldoni’s alleged behavior and “the hostile work environment that had nearly derailed production.” Multiple producers, including Blake Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, attended the gathering.

“Blake, along with her team, have been working on this for months. It’s truly been so ugly for her. And insanely stressful,” the insider told People Magazine. “She’s never dealt with anything like this before.”

Among the key demands addressed during the meeting were safeguards, including the presence of a full-time intimacy coordinator on set to ensure a safe and professional working environment.

Following the news of the lawsuit, Blake Lively released a statement to the New York Times where she expressed, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”

Lively’s legal team is also accusing Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios of retaliation, claiming they launched a “sophisticated press and digital plan” to punish her for speaking out about misconduct on set and to intimidate others from coming forward, according to the filing.

“Clearly the smear campaign is still working even after all the details were revealed,” the insider also told People. “The amount of people, and mostly women, that are leaving nasty comments about Blake on social-media mentions is truly appalling,” the insider adds.

Amid Blake Lively’s legal filing against Justin Baldoni, several well-known figures have voiced their support. Among them are her “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” co-stars America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel, and Amber Tamblyn, “It Ends with Us” author Colleen Hoover, and “A Simple Favor” director Paul Feig.

“Throughout the filming of ‘It Ends with Us,’ we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice,” Ferrera, Bledel, and Tamblyn said in their joint statement.

Her sister, Robyn Lively, and brother-in-law, Bart Johnson, have also shown their support for the actress.

“Her complaints were filed during the filming. On record. Long before the public conflict. The cast unfollowed him [Baldoni] for a reason,” Johnson wrote in the comments section of an Instagram post about the news from The New York Times. “His PR team was stellar. Gross and disgusting but highly effective. Read the article, their text message exchanges and his PR campaign strategy to bury her by any means necessary. No one is with out [sic] faults. But the public got played.”

According to the newly filed complaint from Blake Lively’s legal team, Justin Baldoni allegedly cited a negative social media post about Hailey Bieber as an example of how he wanted his PR team to execute a retaliatory smear campaign against Lively.

The complaint references private text messages and emails included as evidence in Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit, allegedly showing Baldoni in communication with PR executive Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert Melissa Nathan. The messages suggest the trio strategized a campaign that Lively claims was intended to “destroy” her reputation.

In an August 4 exchange, detailed in a complaint obtained by PEOPLE on December 21, Justin Baldoni allegedly shared a screenshot of an X post, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, titled “Hailey Bieber’s history of bullying many women.”

“This is what we would need,” Baldoni wrote in the text message, per the complaint. Abel replied, “Yes I literally just spoke to Melissa about this on the break about what we discussed last night for social and digital. Focus on Reddit, TikTok, [Instagram].”