Blake Lively asks judge for stronger protection, says she’s received ‘violent’ messages amid Justin Baldoni legal battle
Blake Lively requested “additional protections” amid her legal battle with Justin Baldoni after allegedly receiving “threatening” messages.
On Thursday, Lively’s attorneys asked Judge Lewis J. Liman to grant the actress, 37, a stronger protected order than the court’s previously agreed upon “model” one.
In the proposed PO, her legal team requested to have certain discovery material categorized as “Attorney’s Eyes Only,” limiting what is made public given the nature of the case.
The proposed category would only be used for material that is “highly confidential and personal, sensitive, or proprietary nature that the revelation of such is likely to cause a competitive, business, commercial, financial, personal or privacy injury,” per the letter obtained by Page Six.
The letter noted that the case deals with “high-profile individuals, to whom a duty of confidentiality is owed.”
The “Gossip Girl” star’s team attorneys pointed to her newly filed amended complaint against Baldoni as justification for their request.
“As detailed in Ms. Lively’s Amended Complaint, Ms. Lively, her family, other members of the cast, various fact witnesses, and individuals that have spoken out publicly in support of Ms. Lively have received violent, profane, sexist, and threatening communications,” the letter stated.
The request referenced the “vicious” backlash Lively faced online as further reasoning why a stronger protective order is needed.
The legal team claimed it’s “entirely foreseeable, probable, and inevitable” that the release of certain information could further harm Lively and her family “by violating their privacy, exposing them to threats, and creating a climate of possible witness intimidation.”
Reps for Lively and Baldoni did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
The filing came days after Lively submitted an amended version of her original complaint against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios.
Lively hinted at the need for stronger protections in the court document, claiming her four children — James, 10, Inez, 8, Betty, 5, and Olin, 2 — have been “traumatized” by the legal drama.
She said her kids have been “emotionally uprooted in ways that have substantially impacted their well-being.”
Her “children’s pain” has also deeply impacted her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who has “been affected mentally, physically and professionally,” per the complaint.
Lively, herself, has also “suffered from grief, fear, trauma and extreme anxiety” in recent months.
The updated filing also furthered the actress’ claims of sexual harassment, alleging that Baldoni made multiple women feel “uncomfortable” on set of “It Ends With Us.”
According to Lively, two other people are willing to testify about their experiences working on the film, which came out in August 2024.
However, the women were not identified in the filing due to concerns over cyberbullying and retaliation.
While Lively’s correspondence with the actors wasn’t included in the complaint, she included other messages from May 2023 in which she vented about the “Jane the Virgin” actors alleged behavior to a pal.
In the texts, the “A Simple Favor” star referred to Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios partner, Jamey Heath, as “creeps” and “clowns.”
“Like keep your hormones to yourselves. This is not mine,” she wrote. “I don’t want it. I don’t want you [sic] gaze or words or tongue or videos of your naked wife. Yeah. It’s shocking.”
However, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, was quick to slam the lawsuit for it’s “lack of actual evidence.”
“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,” Freedman said.
“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,” he added.
Baldoni has vehemently denied all of Lively’s claims and responded to her original lawsuit with litigation of his own.
The actor-turned-director, 41, filed a $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds and a $250 million libel lawsuit against the New York Times, who initially published Lively’s complaint.