How Justin Baldoni felt about Blake Lively being criticised before lawsuits

Justin Baldoni reportedly was not pleased with Blake Lively getting criticised ahead of their lawsuits.

The remarks came from his lawyer Bryan Freedman during an appearance on the podcast The Town with Matthew Belloni on Thursday.

Freedman addressed host Beloni's assertions about the texts between Baldoni and his crisis managers and publicists included in Lively's complaint appeared to be "celebratory."

He pointed out that emojis were removed from those conversations in the lawsuit that made it clear "they're joking around" about articles being organically published during It Ends With Us promotions.

"In fact, the publicists are saying 'We had nothing to do with this whatsoever.' And there's other people that say the same thing and that organically this press was coming out," Freedman said.

"Justin wasn't happy about anything that would be negative about Blake, about the movie, about him or anything. This wasn't just about him or just about her, this was about the project they were working on together."

Freedman clarified that the negative press about Lively did not please her It Ends With Us director and costar as the movie was his "passion project."

"The last thing he wanted to see was anything online that would somehow criticise the movie," Freedman added. He characterised Baldoni's communications with crisis PR representatives during It Ends With Us' release as Baldoni trying"to know what was happening out there and if there was anything that people could do differently to change the response to the movie or otherwise."

"It wasn't in his interest for Blake Lively to be negatively criticized; it's not in his interest for him to be negatively criticised," Freedman said. "It's not in his interest for this movie to do anything other than reap rewards at the box office and to have domestic violence survivors feel an affinity to the project and to be understood and to be heard."

Baldoni and Lively are set for a 2026 trial as Baldoni pleads not guilty to sexual harassment and retaliatory smear campaign accusations made by his costar Lively. Meanwhile, Lively is being sued for defamation and extortion by her counterpart.