Ryan Reynolds has offered some rare comments on wife Blake Lively‘s ongoing legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
The Deadpool actor recently joined Sunday Today host Willie Geist for a live sit-down interview, which aired yesterday on the NBC morning show.
When asked how their family has “managed” amid the high-profile legal drama, Reynolds said he has “never … been more proud” of Lively.
“Really, without getting into too much, I have never in my life been more proud of my wife,” he said. “I’ve never in my life been more proud of someone with that level of integrity that brings that with them, carries that with them in everything that they do.”
Reynolds also indicated that fans and those who’ve just seen coverage of the Lively-Baldoni case don’t know everything about the proceedings.
“You really see the illusion behind so much of this stuff, digital life versus real life,” Reynolds said of his family’s experience. “People have no idea what’s really going on.”
Earlier this month, Lively shared a lengthy statement, in which she vowed to keep “fighting,” after U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman dismissed most claims in her lawsuit over alleged sexual harassment on the It Ends With Us set, significantly narrowing the scope of the case as it proceeds to a May trial. Liman’s decision dropped Lively’s claims of harassment, defamation and conspiracy, meaning the trial will now center on alleged breach of contract and retaliation by Wayfarer and aiding and abetting retaliation by the PR firm working for Baldoni.
“I will never stop doing my part in fighting to expose the systems and people who seek to harm, shame, silence and retaliate against victims,” she wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram Stories on Friday, April 3.
She wrote, earlier in the statement, “I’m grateful for the Court’s ruling which allows the heart of my case to be presented to a jury next month, and for the ability to finally tell my story in full at trial, for my own sake, but also for those who don’t have the same opportunity to … many of whom I have known and loved deeply in my life, and the countless I’ll never know.”
She added, “The last thing I wanted in my life was a lawsuit, but I brought this case because of the pervasive RETALIATION I faced, and continue to, for privately and professionally asking for a safe working environment for myself and others. I hope the Court’s decision shows others that, as unfathomably painful as it is, you can speak up.”
And she encouraged her fans not to “be distracted by the digital soap opera,” maintaining, “The physical pain from digital violence is very real. It is abuse. And it’s everywhere.”
“My claims won’t be the first or last time you’ll see examples of the extreme dangers of retaliation and digital warfare,” she wrote.
Lively claimed in her lawsuit that Baldoni orchestrated a retaliatory campaign in the press and on social media after she went public with her sexual harassment claims.
The court found that while Baldoni was entitled to protect his reputation, some of what he was alleged to have done could serve as an attack on Lively’s reputation, including key messaging in Baldoni’s PR campaign that she had a “less than favorable reputation in the industry span[ning] decades.” There’s also evidence that could lead a jury to conclude that Wayfarer planned more aggressive moves designed to hurt her career, according to the ruling.
Reynolds has mostly stayed silent about the Lively-Baldoni dispute since the two It Ends With Us stars filed dueling lawsuits at the end of 2024, with Baldoni’s $400 million defamation and extortion lawsuit thrown out last June. Reynolds, the couple’s longtime publicist Leslie Sloane and The New York Times were named as defendants alongside Lively in Baldoni’s suit. Baldoni had alleged that Lively and Reynolds pressured their agency, WME, to drop him, specifically saying Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere.
But the agency said in a statement that what Baldoni alleged didn’t happen.
“Baldoni’s former representative was not at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client,” the statement read.
Reynolds was also included in leaked text messages from the legal battle earlier this year, with the actor specifically asking Matt Damon and his wife Lucy to watch Lively’s cut of the film.
“This movie has been one of the all time zingers on and off set,” Reynolds wrote. “One day, we’ll make a movie about the movie. And we can’t wait to tell you all about it. The stories are already finding their place in the pantheon of legendary Hollywood Insanity.”
And he alluded to the saga at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special.
When former castmembers Tina Fey and Amy Poehler asked how he was doing, Reynolds, seated next to Lively in the audience, replied, “Great! … Why, what have you heard?”
