Justin Baldoni never wanted to “hurt” Blake Lively.
The actor, through his attorney Bryan Freedman, has strongly denied accusations that he orchestrated a smear campaign against his former co-star Blake Lively following the release of It Ends With Us.
During an appearance on the Today Show Friday, Freedman refuted the claims, stating unequivocally, “One hundred percent no.”
He elaborated that Baldoni, 40, harbored no ill will toward Lively, 37, adding, “Justin Baldoni, from the get-go, said, ‘I don’t want to do anything negative toward her. I don’t want to hurt her.’”
Despite the denial, Freedman confirmed that Baldoni “absolutely” plans to countersue Lively in response to her lawsuit.
He also revealed plans to release all text exchanges between the former co-stars to provide what he claims is the full context missing from the allegations.
Freedman addressed the text messages shared by The New York Times in Lively’s lawsuit, stating they were “presented without context.”
He emphasized transparency, saying, “I am more than willing to take every single text message that exists out there, lay them out, put them on a website for the world to see, have them see the truth and determine the truth for themselves.”
Last month, Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni of body-shaming her, attempting to add more explicit scenes to the movie, showing her inappropriate images and videos, breaking character during filming to continue kissing her, and launching what she described as a “social manipulation” campaign to damage her reputation.
When questioned about the allegations of inappropriate behavior on the set of It Ends With Us, Freedman acknowledged that discomfort can occur in professional settings but questioned whether the behavior amounted to sexual harassment.
“I think there’s some behavior always that can make people uncomfortable, and I don’t think anybody has the intention to do that,” he said. “The question, really, in this case is does it rise to the level of sexual harassment?”
