Justin Baldino Is ‘Grateful’ To Be With Family At LAX Following $400M Blake Lively Lawsuit

It seems Justin Baldoni isn't afraid to step out in public after filing a $400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and others related to the drama stemming from the production of "It Ends With Us."

The actor and director was accused of sexual harassment and body shaming on the set of the film by the “Gossip Girl” star and a lawsuit soon followed. However, Baldoni hit back with his own lawsuit, claiming that he is actually the victim of Lively and her need to be in control of the film.

On Friday, January 17, Justin Baldoni was seen out and about with his family at Los Angeles International Airport. Baldoni shares a daughter Maiya, 9, and a son, Maxwell, 7, with his wife, Emily.

“We’re grateful to be with the family, man,” Baldoni told photographers in a video shared by TMZ. “We have amazing friends and family and faith.”

Baldoni’s faith recently came under scrutiny after Lively alleged that she had been sexually harassed by him. In 2020, Justin told the Today show how his faith provides him with “a lot of insight” and gives him a “daily source of inner happiness.”

“Through God, we are told to not rely on the external or superficial for joy and serenity, and while no one is perfect at that, it’s an incredible guiding light,” he said at the time.

On Thursday, The Blast reported that Baldoni hit Blake Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” star Ryan Reynolds, with a $400 million lawsuit. In the lengthy filing, the director slammed Lively’s “tone-deaf” promotion of the film and claimed that “The Shallows” actress was “determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story” to mask her alleged “tone-deaf” promotion of the film.

His lawsuit was in response to a December 2024 lawsuit filed by Lively in which she claimed that Baldoni tried to ruin her reputation through a smear campaign. She claimed that his tactics resulted in a significant drop in sales of her haircare products and non-alcoholic beverages.

In a statement on Thursday, January 16, Baldoni’s lawyer insisted that they had nothing to hide and planned to publish considerable evidence to allow the public to come to their own decision.

“This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team, and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new, and doctored information to the media,” Baldoni’s lawyer said in a statement.

“It is clear based on our own all-out willingness to provide all complete text messages, emails, video footage,e and other documentary evidence that was shared between the parties in real-time, that this is a battle she will not win and will certainly regret,” he continued. “Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”

“Ms. Lively will never again be allowed to continue to exploit actual victims of real harassment solely for her personal reputation gain at the expense of those without power,” the statement went on to say. “Let’s not forget, Ms. Lively and her team attempted to bulldoze reputations and livelihoods for heinously selfish reasons through their own dangerous manipulation of the media before even taking any actual legal action.  We know the truth, and now the public does too. Justin and his team have nothing to hide, documents do not lie.”

On Thursday night, Lively’s lawyers released a statement of their own, accusing Baldoni of “DARVO” tactics.

“This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook. This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” Lively’s lawyers said in a statement.

“This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender. Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations,” they added.

Lively’s legal team claimed that Baldoni’s lawyers were “trying to shift the narrative” by claiming that she used her relationship with Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift to take creative control of the film and isolate him from the rest of the cast.

“The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer,” Lively’s statement continued. “The evidence will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success.”

“Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing,” they added. “In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”