Justin Baldoni is still carrying the emotional weight of his headline-making legal battle with Blake Lively.
The filmmaker, 42, has been suffering from “emotional stress” in the wake of his explosive legal battle with Lively, 38, according to Baldoni’s friend and “It Ends With Us” co-star Adam Mondschein.
“It’s a big burden to carry,” Mondschein, 50, exclusively told Page Six. “It’s just like the weight and the emotional stress that this puts on him.”
“He’s a real person,” the actor added while discussing how the lawsuit allegedly impacted Baldoni and his family. “To maintain the knowledge that that’s not who you are, that’s exhausting.”
The actor alleged Baldoni’s “heart is broken” and insists he “really cares” and has “integrity.”
Mondschein — who played OBGYN Dr. Dunbar in the controversial delivery-room scene in “It Ends With Us” — previously defended Baldoni after Lively accused her co-star and director of sexual harassment and fostering a toxic work environment in a bombshell lawsuit filed in December 2024.
Lively filed the complaint against Baldoni, alleging that he sexually harassed her on the set of their film, which was adapted from the popular Colleen Hoover novel of the same name.
“The reason he wanted to direct this piece, the reason why he wanted to be in it, to put his heart on it, was because he found the book to be significant,” Mondschein explained, noting that Baldoni had “a great relationship” with the author and wanted to tell “the best” story.
“He was going to usher forth her book to a whole new audience, turning it into a movie … he wanted these conversations … about domestic violence, the responsibility that men have to have this conversation, not just the victims, not just the women. And so that was his whole drive.”
As Page Six previously reported, Lively further accused Baldoni of trying to “destroy” her reputation with a calculated smear campaign, which was detailed in a New York Times article titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
Less than two weeks later, she filed a formal lawsuit against the “Jane the Virgin” alum, accusing him of sexual harassment, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.
However, Baldoni denied all of Lively’s accusations and filed his own $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit against the actress, along with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and their PR team.
After Baldoni and his co-plaintiffs from Wayfarer Studios failed to meet a deadline to file an amended complaint in their countersuit against Lively, US District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman formally ended the countersuit in October 2025.
More recently, the court dismissed the majority of Lively’s claims, including her sexual harassment allegations against Baldoni. Lively and Baldoni then made the shocking decision to settle their lengthy court battle on May 4 in what we’re told was a “last-minute deal.”
