REVEALED: Blake Lively very FLIRTY exchanges with Justin Baldoni before things took a turn on It Ends With Us
Their ongoing legal battle has painted them as mortal enemies in the public eye, but early exchanges between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni hint at a vastly different, flirtatious beginning to their saga.
A DailyMail.com analysis of the trove of texts and messages buried in hundreds of pages of sparring legal filings in the nasty war of words raises an elusive question: Just who was flirting with whom?
‘I feel the same. It’s such a good feeling to get work done that we’re proud of. And to do it together,’ Lively, 37, wrote tenderly to Baldoni in one such exchange.
‘It just clicks when we find it.’
Their 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s acclaimed novel exploring domestic violence and emotional abuse was a surprise success at the box office, grossing $351 million on a budget of $25 million.
But it has also spawned multiple lawsuits and contentious court filings that depict a confounding, love-hate relationship between its two biggest stars.
Text messages included in legal filings show Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni enjoyed a ‘friendly banter’ that was somewhat flirty, before things took an ugly turn on set
Before the battle turned nasty, the two were sending flirty text messages that hinted at undeniable chemistry, raising questions on where things went wrong
According to 40-year-old Baldoni’s version of events, his working relationship with Lively ‘grew close’ to the point where the two stars would text one another daily.
They ‘shared stories and pictures from their lives, commiserated over family illnesses and exchanged jokes and memes,’ his lawyers write.
The handsome actor-director and the wife of Hollywood megastar Ryan Reynolds enjoyed a ‘friendly banter’ and a ‘comfortable dynamic’ that should have made working together easy.
‘I like sentimental Blake,’ Baldoni replied text mentioned above, prompting Lively to joke: ‘Never met her.’
He quipped: ‘I also like a**hole Blake… don’t worry’. The Gossip Girl alum responded with self-deprecating humor, writing: ‘I’ve met her. So have my suppositories’
Relations were similarly convivial in May 2023 on the eve of filming for their hit flick about a pretty young florist who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon.
Messages from early in the filming process show their exchanges were borderline flirty, with Lively even making silly, self-deprecating jokes in response to Baldoni saying he likes ‘a**hole Blake’ on May 11, 2023
The actress expressed admiration and gratitude towards the director when production first began. In this May 15,2023 text she tells him his note ‘means so much to me’ and thanks him ‘for caring so much’
In another exchange later that month, Baldoni tells Lively: ‘You were amazing today’, to which she replies: ‘You were terrific. I’m proud of everything we did today, but really every day’
‘I’m excited to start tomorrow. But it’s only one piece of the journey. We started months ago’, purred Lively. She met husband Reynolds on the set of Green Lantern months prior to his December 2010 divorce from Scarlett Johansson and married him two years later.
‘I’m grateful for all we’ve built so far. Thank you for caring so much and for putting every bit of you into showing it,’ she continued over email.
About a week later Baldoni, a married father-of-two, messaged Lively to say: ‘I’m not going to tell you that you were amazing because you tease me for being so sentimental – but you were amazing today.
‘Thank you I do appreciate it. I’m just a ball buster but it means a lot to me. I care a great deal. And always want to deliver,’ Lively wrote back.
She gushed: ‘You were terrific. I’m proud of everything we did today, but really every day.’
The love-in, as the world now knows, did not last.
DailyMail.com this week also obtained exclusive audio in which Baldoni gives an emotional apology to Lively after she felt disappointed by his response to her re-writing the film’s pivotal rooftop scene (pictured)
According to the legal filings, relations would quickly sour as Lively allegedly fought Baldoni for greater artistic control and claimed she started to feel uncomfortable during their intimate scenes
Dueling lawsuits have since revealed how relations soured as Lively allegedly fought Baldoni for greater artistic control and started to feel uncomfortable during their intimate scenes.
She hired her own editor to produce her own version of the film independently of Baldoni and the pair reportedly declined to do press together.
Baldoni even claims that he and his family were forced to watch the premier in a basement because Lively refused to be in the same room as him.
Lively was the first to sue, claiming in a California civil rights complaint that Baldoni entered her trailer while she was topless, showed her graphic video of his wife giving birth and bit and sucked on her lips during an improvised kissing scene.
She further accused him of conspiring to smear her reputation.
Her sexual harassment claims made global headlines thanks to the near-simultaneous publication of a New York Times expose entitled ‘Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine’ which stretched to 4,000 words and quoted heavily from the complaint.
Baldoni claims he was also ‘excluded from the official celebrity after-party, despite it being an event ultimately paid for by Sony and Wayfarer’; Lively seen with her other co-star Brandon Sklenar and husband Reynolds
He claims that he and his family were forced to watch the premier in a basement because Lively refused to be in the same room as him
Next came the counterpunch: Baldoni sued Lively and Reynolds for defamation, turning the narrative on its head by claiming it was Lively’s team doing the smearing and asking for $400 million in damages.
He accused her of twisting the meaning of his texts and emails and working in tandem with Leslie Sloane, a powerful Hollywood publicist, to plant damaging stories about him in the media.
It was all a ploy, Baldoni argued, to rebuild Lively’s reputation after she came in for criticism for being prickly and difficult in interviews and promotional events.
Any negative publicity surrounding his blonde leading lady had arisen ‘organically’, his suit contends.
The feud took yet another explosive twist Tuesday when DailyMail.com published previously unseen raw video footage of Baldoni and Lively filming a romantic dance scene as their characters Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid.
Lively’s suit alleges that Baldoni ‘leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, it smells so good’ during the interaction.
The film at the heart of the feud, based on the 2016 bestseller by Colleen Hoover, was released in August and was a box office hit. It follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni, who was also the film’s director
In the footage obtained by DailyMail.com the pair are seen engaging in what appears to be playful but professional banter between takes.
In the pivotal moment, Baldoni asks Lively if he’s ‘getting beard’ on her. ‘I’m probably getting spray tan on you’ she replies. That prompts Baldoni to say ‘it smells good’ before they both laugh.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman flagged the footage as proof that his client behaved appropriately and had ‘nothing to hide’. Lively countered that it confirmed her claims of harassment.
‘Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,’ her legal team shared in a statement with DailyMail.com.
They claim 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.’
It was reported hours later that Lively and Reynolds had asked the court to slap a protective order on Baldoni’s lawyers to stop them making ‘harassing and retaliatory’ comments to the media.
Sources close to Freedman say he’ll oppose the takedown because it’s ‘grossly unfair’ to bar Baldoni from putting his side in the public domain weeks after Lively used the New York Times to present hers.
