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Justin Baldoni has expanded his high-profile lawsuit against Blake Lively, now including his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, in the $400 million legal battle. The actor and director claims Jones provided Lively with a phone containing private messages, which were later used against him in court.
The messages in question play a pivotal role in Lively’s legal case against Baldoni, 41, and were central to a New York Times report last December that first brought Lively’s sexual assault allegations against him to light. Among the disclosed messages were exchanges between Baldoni’s publicists that allegedly portrayed them orchestrating a negative publicity campaign against Lively, a mother of four.
Justin Baldoni Claims Messages Were Doctored
Baldoni’s legal team argues that the text messages were manipulated and taken out of context. As part of his defense, his attorneys have made the complete exchanges public in an effort to refute Lively’s claims. The countersuit, filed in Los Angeles on Friday, alleges that Lively’s team gained access to these messages through Stephanie Jones, who was the head of Jonesworks PR at the time.
According to court filings, Jones obtained the messages by taking possession of a work phone belonging to her former partner, Jennifer Abel. The phone reportedly contained communications between Abel and crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, both of whom were working for Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer, at the time.
Both Abel and Nathan are named in Baldoni’s lawsuit and claim that their inclusion in Lively’s legal filing led to them receiving threats and harassment.
Justin Baldoni Attorney Condemns Jones’ Actions
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, issued a statement to DailyMail.com condemning Jones’ alleged actions.
“It is undeniable that Stephanie Jones initiated this catastrophic sequence of events by violating the most basic of privacy rights, as well as any remaining trust her clients held,” Freedman stated. “No stranger to stirring up crisis scenarios for departing clients, Ms. Jones maliciously turned over communications from the phone she wrongfully took from her own partner to her cohort [Lively’s publicist] Leslie Sloane, immediately after Ms. Jones was terminated for cause by Wayfarer due to her own wrongful behavior.”
Jones Files Separate Lawsuit Against Baldoni
Shortly after Lively filed her complaint against Baldoni in December, Jones also launched a separate lawsuit against the actor, his company Wayfarer Studios, Nathan, and Abel. Jones accused Abel, who represented Baldoni while working for Jonesworks, of stealing documents and client information from the firm to aid in starting a rival company. Jones alleged that she fired Abel last summer after uncovering the misconduct.
In her lawsuit, Jones echoed Lively’s claims, asserting that Nathan and Abel organized “a smear campaign against Lively to benefit Baldoni and Wayfarer.” She further alleged that the two PR professionals conspired “to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones – when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it.”
Lively’s legal complaint includes purported screenshots of text messages—many of them between Nathan and Abel—which allegedly show the planning of a negative PR campaign against the actress.
Baldoni’s Legal Counteroffensive
Baldoni initially responded to the allegations by suing The New York Times for $250 million, claiming the publication relied “almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims.” A spokesperson for the Times stated that the newspaper intends to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
Subsequently, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds. He claimed that Lively’s team was responsible for orchestrating a smear campaign against him, accusing her of distorting the meaning of his texts and emails while working with Hollywood publicist Leslie Sloane to plant damaging media stories about him.
