Justin Baldoni has issued his first public statement in nearly two years after his It Ends With Us lawsuit with Blake Lively ended in a settlement.
In a video posted on social media Wednesday, Baldoni appeared alongside his wife Emily and said, “So, we have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say, because lord knows we have. But it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to. It just didn’t feel like the right time.”
“And this feels like the moment,” Emily added.
The couple spoke about how trying the past few years have been as the case moved through the courts. And while Baldoni said “gratitude has saved us,” he added that it didn’t erase the “injustice and pain that we’ve felt for the past two years.”
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Emily added, “Like how could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women. So much to unpack. And the reality is that there’s been a lot of trauma for us to move through as a family, which also makes it hard to speak.”
“There has been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence over the last couple years, and that created so much noise, and we didn’t want to add to the noise,” Baldoni said. Emily continued, “The truth and the facts have spoken for themselves.”
In May, Lively and Baldoni settled their contentious legal dispute tied to their film, It Ends With Us, just weeks before it was scheduled to head to trial. Lively had accused Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, of fostering a toxic, sexually charged work environment that discriminated against women on set. She also claimed that Baldoni and the film’s producers orchestrated a smear campaign to “silence” and “eviscerate” her. Baldoni denied Lively’s claims and countersued Lively for defamation (though that case was eventually dismissed).
As part of the settlement, Lively received zero compensation, but a judge ordered Baldoni to pay the actress’ legal fees, which tabulated to $8 million.
In the aftermath of the settlement, Baldoni said, “We are healing, and if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear. It looks different every day. And we have had to rethink for ourselves what is real and what matters. And it’s this. It’s our family. It’s our friends. It’s our community who’ve been there for us. It’s our faith. I think we’re closer and more devoted and steadfast in our faith than we’ve ever been.”
He continued, “Also, this has been on both of our hearts. There were so many of you who, when we didn’t have a voice, were our voice. You had a prayer at the very beginning, which was that you just pray that people would have discernment. And so many of you had discernment and you used your intuition and you trusted that. And you have given your time to fight for us, and thank you does not feel like enough.”
“There is so much more to say,” Emily said as the video statement ended. “But that time will come.”
From Rolling Stone US
