• Rumors of a feud between "It Ends with Us" costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni kicked off in August 2024.
• Months later, Lively filed a sexual-harassment complaint against Baldoni and accused him of a smear campaign.
• Baldoni filed a $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for its story on Lively's complaint.

The "It Ends With Us" press tour in the summer of 2024 was overshadowed by rumor and speculation.

Ahead of the film's release in August 2024, fans suspected a feud between lead star Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, her costar and director.

Some blamed Lively without knowing what caused their apparent falling-out and criticized her on social media.

The film survived the backlash and became one of the biggest hits of the summer, grossing $350 million worldwide.

In December 2024, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni.

Here's everything we know about the situation.

Baldoni did not interact with other cast members at press events.

Fans suspected that something was amiss when Baldoni and Lively didn't interact during the press tour, despite playing partners in the film.

Lively teamed up with costars Brandon Sklenar and Isabela Ferrer for press events and with Colleen Hoover, the author of the book the film is based on, for interviews and TV spots. Meanwhile, Baldoni did a lot of solo press.

When they both attended the New York premiere on August 6, they were not photographed together.

Lively posed with her castmates, Hoover, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman, his "Deadpool & Wolverine" costar. Meanwhile, Baldoni was photographed with his wife and some of the other producers who worked on the film.

While speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the carpet at the New York premiere, Baldoni said why he was stepping back from the limelight.

"This isn't my night — this is a night for all the women who we made this movie for," he said." This is a night for Blake, this is a night for Colleen. I'm just so grateful that we're here, five years in the making."

Regardless of his comments, fans theorized about the potential drama between the two on social media.

The speculation intensified after a user on the r/ColleenHoover subreddit posted on August 6, 2024, that Lively and Hoover did not follow Baldoni on Instagram. Fans also noticed that the film's other stars, including Sklenar, Ferrer, and Jenny Slate, did not follow Baldoni.

Business Insider could not verify whether they previously followed him.

Baldoni followed all of them except Hoover.

Fans wondered if the apparent beef was one-sided or if Baldoni was at the center of a wider fracture, especially since, during pre-production, Hoover and Baldoni appeared on each other's Instagram feeds multiple times.

Adding to this theory was a clip of Slate seemingly sidestepping a question about Baldoni at the movie's New York premiere. Asked about having Baldoni as both a scene partner and a director, she responded by not mentioning him and instead speaking about how "intense" it must be to do both jobs.

Fans turn on Lively.

Many fans blamed Lively for the feud, accusing her of trying to take over the film.

This theory was supported by Baldoni and Lively's interviews in the lead-up to the premiere.

On August 9, 2024, Baldoni told Today that Lively and Reynolds, who was not a producer on the film, contributed significantly to it.

"You can't summarize Blake's contribution in a sentence, because her energy and imprint is all over the movie and really, really made the film better, and from beginning to end," Baldoni said.

Baldoni also said he struggled to balance allowing collaboration and having his voice drowned out entirely.

He said: "You don't have to listen to everybody, and that didn't happen all the time, but there were just moments where I would get out of the way too much."

Baldoni said Lively should take over as director to adapt the sequel to the "It Ends With Us" novel, "It Starts with Us."

Meanwhile, Lively told E! News on August 7, 2024, that Reynolds helped pen the opening scene of "It Ends With Us."

The film's screenwriter Christy Hal told People a day later that she wasn't aware that Reynolds had written some of the dialogue used in the final version of the script.

"When I saw a cut, I was like, 'Oh, that's cute. That must have been a cute improvised thing,'" Hall said. "So if I'm being told that Ryan wrote that, then great, how wonderful."

Fans' other grievance was about how Lively promoted the movie.

The film is about a florist whose husband becomes abusive, and fans criticized Lively for speaking about the film's romantic elements during the press tour and less about the domestic abuse plot. This was in line with the film's marketing.

Baldoni was the only cast member who consistently spoke about the domestic abuse element.

A clip of Lively acting hostile toward a reporter in a 2016 interview resurfaced amid the 'It Ends With Us' drama.

Journalist Kjersti Flaa released a clip of an interview with Blake Lively on August 10, 2024, titled "The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job."

"It actually took me a while to get over the experience," Flaa told BI in an email on August 19, 2024.

"Every time I entered a room after this I got nervous that something similar might happen again," she wrote.

Lively's costar made a statement asking people to stop focusing on 'what may or may not have happened.'

Sklenar, who plays Lively's other love interest in "It Ends With Us," spoke out about the backlash toward the film in an Instagram post on August 20, 2024.

"Colleen and the women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance, and for women choosing a better life for themselves. Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about," he said.

"This film is meant to inspire. It's meant to validate and recognize," Sklenar added. "It is not meant to once again, make women the 'bad guy,' let's move beyond that together."

Representatives for Baldoni, Lively, Reynolds, Hoover, and Sklenar did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment.

On December 20, 2024, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, inflicting "emotional distress," and conspiring to damage her public reputation.

The complaint also named Wayfarer Studios, Baldoni's production company, and Jamey Heath, the company's CEO, as two of the 11 defendants.

In the complaint, Lively said an all-hands meeting about Baldoni and Heath's behavior on set was held in January 2023. She accused him of showing her nude videos and images of women, improvising kissing scenes or intimate scenes, and entering her trailer while she was naked.

Lively said Heath and Baldoni responded by hiring Melissa Nathan, a crisis PR representative, and a Texas-based contractor named Jed Wallace, both defendants in the complaint, to orchestrate a "multi-tiered" plan to "destroy" her public reputation and stop her or anyone else from speaking out about what happened on set.

She also claimed that the cast agreed to a marketing plan created by the film's distributor, Sony Pictures Entertainment, to avoid talking about the sad parts of the movie, which Baldoni broke away from.

"What the public did not know was that Mr. Baldoni and his team did so to explain why many of the Film's cast and crew had unfollowed Mr. Baldoni on social media and were not appearing with him in public," the complaint said.

Baldoni's attorney said Lively blamed Baldoni in the hope of improving her reputation.

Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, told BI in a statement after the complaint was filed: "It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions."

Freedman said Nathan was hired because Lively made multiple demands and threatened not to show up to set or promote the film if they were not met.

When asked to respond to Freedman, a representative for Lively referred BI to a statement shared with The New York Times on December 21, 2024: "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."

On December 24, 2024, publicist Stephanie Jones sued Baldoni, his film studio, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel, a former employee of Jones' PR company, for breach of contract and defamation.

In the suit, Jones also alleged Baldoni and the PRs orchestrated a smear campaign against Lively. Jones said this was done behind her back while her company was working with Baldoni until August 2024, when Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios stopped working with the company.

In the following days, Hoover and other stars reacted to the lawsuit.

Lively's costars from 2005's "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" — America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, and Alexis Bledel — shared a joint statement supporting Lively after she made the complaint.

Hoover and Sklenar, who worked on "It Ends With Us," seemed to both throw their support behind Lively by sharing her links to her allegations on their Instagram stories.

"@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met," Hoover wrote in her story post. "Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt."

The complaint has affected Baldoni's career.

On December 21, 2024, The New York Times reported that Ari Emanuel, chief executive of the parent company that owns Baldoni's talent agency, William Morris Endeavor, said the agency had stopped representing him.

On December 9, 2024, before the complaint was released, Vital Voices, a nonprofit organization that supports women leaders, awarded Baldoni the Voices of Solidarity Award to honor his advocacy work for women.

On December 23, 2024, Vital Voices said in a statement on their website that they had rescinded the award.

"The communications among Mr. Baldoni and his publicists included in the lawsuit — and the PR effort they indicate — are, alone, contrary to the values of Vital Voices and the spirit of the Award," the statement read.

Baldoni and others filed a lawsuit against The New York Times.

Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and others mentioned in a New York Times story that detailed Lively's accusations against Baldoni filed a lawsuit against the newspaper on December 31, 2024.

The lawsuit, obtained by BI, said the Times' story published on December 21, 2024, "relied almost entirely on Lively's unverified and self-serving narrative." It also accused the Times of "disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives."

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, contained screenshots of messages that it said contradicted the Times' reporting.

In a statement provided to BI after the lawsuit was filed, a Times spokesperson said the newspaper stood by its reporting and would "vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

"Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article," the statement said.

The outlet also published its full statement responding to the allegations.

In a statement provided to BI after Baldoni's lawsuit was filed, Freedman, the plaintiffs' lawyer, said Lively had orchestrated a "vicious smear campaign" and that the Times "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites."

Freedman also said that they would also sue other individuals "who have abused their power to try and destroy the lives of my clients."

In a statement provided to BI about Baldoni's suit, Lively's lawyers said: "Nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims advanced in Ms. Lively's California Civil Rights Department Complaint, nor her federal complaint."

Lively filed her own lawsuit in New York.

The same day Baldoni filed his lawsuit against the Times, Lively filed a lawsuit against him, Wayfarer, and others in New York federal court.

Representatives for Lively said the lawsuit, which was obtained by BI, was based on the legal complaint Lively previously filed with the California Civil Rights Department. The lawsuit accuses Baldoni and his PR team of engaging in a campaign to retaliate against her for speaking out about sexual misconduct.

"Unfortunately, Ms. Lively's decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks," her lawyers said in a statement provided to BI. "As alleged in Ms. Lively's federal Complaint, Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns."

Representatives for Baldoni and Wayfarer did not address the lawsuit filed by Lively when reached by BI.

Baldoni's lawyer accused Reynolds of teasing the actor with a 'Deadpool & Wolverine' character.

In early January 2025, Freedman said in multiple interviews that Baldoni planned to file a countersuit against Lively alongside the lawsuit against the Times.

On January 7, Freedman told SiriusXM's "The Megyn Kelly Show," "It's not going to be just a lawsuit. It's going to be the kind of lawsuit that is full of evidence, admissions, documents, which prove exactly what she did and how she bullied her way through the process to take over the movie and used her PR people to try and destroy Justin."

Freedman said Leslie Sloane, Lively's PR; Jones, Baldoni's former PR; and Reynolds will be co-defendants in the suit.

Freedman alleged Reynolds used his influence to help Lively take over "It Ends With Us" and to mock Baldoni on "Deadpool and Wolverine," referring to a new character in the film called Nicepool.

In the film, which premiered in July 2024 and was the second highest-grossing movie of 2024, Nicepool, a version of Deadpool from an alternate dimension whose face has not been disfigured, makes jokes about a woman's pregnancy weight, claims to be a feminist and wears a man bun.

Freedman alleged this was based on Baldoni, who was known to wear a hair bun in the past and has a reputation for being a feminist.

In the movie, Nicepool is eventually killed by Ladypool, a female version of Deadpool from an alternate dimension played by Lively.

"What I make of that is that if your wife is sexually harassed, you don't make fun of Justin Baldoni," Freedman said. "You don't make fun of the situation. You take it very seriously. You file HR complaints. You raise the issue and you follow a legal process. What you don't do is mock the person and turn it into a joke."