A new update has just surfaced in Justin Baldoni’s legal troubles with Blake Lively. Apparently, the actor-director was brutally confronted by the Gossip Girl actress’ husband, Ryan Reynolds, which Baldoni discussed privately in a text message conversation with actor Rainn Wilson. This conversation was triggered by allegations raised by his co-star Lively.
In new court documents, the text messages sent by Baldoni, 41, detailed a highly tense personal meeting that he had with Reynolds. The encounter took place at Reynold and Lively’s NYC apartment on January 4, 2024. In his texts, Baldoni alleged that he was “ambushed” by him, and that the private confrontation left him “emotionally paralyzed.”
Justin Baldoni PRIVATELY discussing the trauma he experienced at the hands of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. He never thought the public would read these texts, but here we are. pic.twitter.com/HjZ89f8aHC
The text messages had Baldoni reflecting on what he said happened the night before, just a day before the filming on It Ends with Us was set to resume after the end of the Hollywood strikes. He said about the encounter (via PEOPLE),
Last night was one of the hardest nights of my life. It’s hard to describe what happened exactly. The only way to describe it was an ambush. I had no words I couldn’t formulate sentences. My brain was trying to defend itself when they were needing me to apologize for all of the ways I have f****d up and made her feel unsafe.
He then proceeded to write about the Wrexham AFC co-owner, alleging that he was scolded like he was a child. Baldoni wrote,
Ryan was talking to me like a five-year-old and scolding me. They essentially said that Jamey [Heath] and I are not who we claimed to be and that for us to have a podcast is unsafe because it makes people feel like we are safe.
As Baldoni continued to claim, the Free Guy actor read from a phone a list of allegations, many of which were loosely based on events but “taken completely out of context.” He emphasized that the words “creepy” and “abuse” were used to describe his behavior, and that he was even given a written apology to read aloud, but was unable to go through with it. He wrote,
I was read from a phone all of the things that I did while many of them were based in actual situations. The events were wrong and things were taken completely out of context. The word creepy and abuse were used in reference to me in my behavior I was then given the words of what to say, and had to apologize which I was unable to do because my brain was trying to comprehend what was happening.
To say the least, Baldoni’s mind basically went into shock mode from that confrontation, and now fans are jumping to his defense (see the comments on @thebushbirds’ tweet on X).
Justin Baldoni Felt “Emotionally Paralyzed” From That Meeting
Talking about the meeting with Ryan Reynolds, Justin Baldoni also went on to emphasize how “emotionally paralyzed” he felt after that traumatic turn of events – so much so that he couldn’t even formulate words to properly apologize for the allegations being levied against him. Detailing how he felt after that encounter, he wrote,
I was in shock and basically went into feeling like I was a seven-year-old again when I got home last night. I was emotionally paralyzed. It was as bad as it sounds. Jamey did a beautiful job apologizing I did not have the words. I was embarrassed for myself as it happened in front of the team, but I was embarrassed that I was unable to even formulate the correct words to apologize and honestly just feel like a bad person.
Continuing, he also praised Jamey Heath, the CEO of Wayfarer Studios, for handling the situation when he couldn’t comprehend what to do. Baldoni wrote,
It’s hard to feel so much of what they believe about me is false because they are so convinced that it’s real. Looking for the nuggets of learning which there are many and somehow have showed up today. Thanks to Jamey and my wife and we are currently shooting. I love you all.
In another text message, the actor-director further delved into details of just how brutally he was affected emotionally from his meeting with Blake Lively’s husband. Calling the situation “unjust” and revealing that he even wanted to “run and blow this whole movie up” because of it, Baldoni even said that he felt “abandoned by God in that moment.”
Here’s exactly what he wrote in the text message, word for word:
My brain was struggling because what I wanted to say, and do was run and blow this whole movie up because I feel this was so unjust and yet the only path forward was to acknowledge her and Ryan’s feelings and apologize and take the wrath of an angry husband- yeah, I couldn’t even do that correctly. I prayed and prayed and prayed for the words and I didn’t come so I felt abandoned by God in that moment even though I know that’s not what happened.
Justin Baldoni also added how they were told that this was “the worst experience of [Lively’s] life” and even that “others have witnessed this behavior, and the behavior on our set was creepy.” While the event in itself left him emotionally paralyzed, the star also added how he hadn’t experienced something like that “in years.”
He then recalled the memory with Rainn Wilson about some meeting at “Soul Pancake” with “golriz” that took place “all those years ago,” adding that this new encounter with Reynolds was “times that by about 100” worse. Baldoni also talked about how “lonely” he felt in that moment and how hard it was, even for his therapist, to get him out of that trance. He wrote,
I spoke to my therapist for an hour, and she tried to get me out of the haze as I literally could not get myself off the couch. I don’t know how I will make it through, but I know that I will, and just knowing you’re all there [for] me means the world to me because even with Jamey here and my wife and family I’ve never felt so alone.
Concluding the text message, Baldoni wrote that he was “putting a smile on doing my best to lead the crew” and promised that “I will unpack and process this when we wrap of course.” He also apologized for the “vulnerability dump,” calling that conversation “one of the few safe spaces I have right now” before thanking everyone for their prayers.
As reported by PEOPLE, according to Baldoni, he had asked the trainer about Lively’s weight for a scene where his character had to lift her up. He had asked him because of his history with back problems. But when the trainer relayed the question to Lively, who then told Reynolds about it, which led to the traumatizing confrontation between the two.
The Encounter With Ryan Reynolds Was Recounted in Justin Baldoniʼs Complaint as Well
While Justin Baldoni privately discussed the trauma that he experienced at the hands of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, presumably thinking that the public would never read the texts, that January 2024 meeting with the Deadpool star was also recounted in the complaint that Baldoni filed around a year later, in January 2025 (per PEOPLE).
In his complaint, his lawyers alleged, “Reynolds launched into a tirade, berating Baldoni in what Baldoni later described as a ‘traumatic’ encounter, stating he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life.’” His lawyer also characterized the alleged exchange as an “inappropriate and humiliating berating of Baldoni — delivered, perhaps intentionally, as other celebrity friends were coming in and out of their penthouse.”
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, also told Page Six that Reynolds was “angry,” “stern,” and “impassioned” during the meeting, but clarified that he did not “aggressively berate” Baldoni, saying, “The definition of berate is to scold or criticize angrily.”
Meanwhile, in Lively’s lawsuit, her lawyers discussed the respective meeting from January 2024 as well. Per her lawyers, she apparently chose to have her husband there as her representative, and they all “discussed in detail the inappropriate conduct that Ms. Lively, her employees, and other cast and crew experienced at the hands of Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath.”
With all of this making headlines as well, now the only thing that remains to be seen is how this entire turn of events turns out to be – both for Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively as well as for Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios. As of this writing, her case against Baldoni is set to go to trial in March 2026 in the Southern District of New York.
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