She wanted a “simple request.”
Blake Lively sent Justin Baldoni a private voice memo about the production schedule for It Ends With Us in February 2023, which has been revealed in an ongoing legal battle.
“I hope you get well,” the actress began in a courtroom exhibit (obtained Thursday by People magazine). “I just wanted to connect to put something on your radar.”
Lively admitted that she was hesitant to share her request with her co-stars, saying her husband Ryan Reynolds “encouraged” her to do so.
The “Deadpool” actor, 49, is said to have said, “I trust you guys a lot. Please cover for (Baldoni).”
Lively, 38, went on to explain that she had spoken to Baldoni “as a friend more than anything” about how “stressed” she was feeling from filming the movie and “Proxy” back-to-back after welcoming son Orin.
Lively briefly mentioned her struggle to find a nurse for the infant, after stating that she “doesn’t talk to (the director) the way she talks” to Baldoni.
“The only reason I’m doing[that movie]before is because I made a promise to them and I’m not going back on it,” she explained. “But when you have a week off in between, it’s really difficult.”
The “Sharrows” star, who is also the mother of daughters James, 11, Ines, 9, and Betty, 6, added, “I couldn’t sleep after the baby was born, and I want to be in the best shape, so it’s too early to shoot in April and then in March.”
Additionally, she admitted, “Ryan and I were also very stressed about spending a month apart. … We’ve only spent less than two weeks at most so far.”
Lively acknowledged that this was “not an issue with[Baldoni].”
However, she said, “I know our schedule is our schedule. I’m not trying to move anything. But if you happen to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, it would be really great if I could go two weeks early,’ that’s great. If that’s what it is, then that’s it.”
She ended the voice memo asking Baldoni to “hold it in the meantime,” saying, “I’m so glad I got to talk to you. (Well), I’m not talking to you. This is so sad. This is my social interaction these days. Just talking into a voice memo.”
Representatives for Lively and Baldoni did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
Lively shot The Proxies from March to May 2023, followed by It Ends with Us from May to June 2023, but the remaining filming was postponed to January 2024 due to the writers’ strike.
By the time the film, based on Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name, was released in August 2024, there were rumors of a feud between Baldoni and Lively.
The two did not interact during the project.
Four months later, Lively accused Baldoni, 42, of sexual harassment, which Baldoni denies, and the Jane the Virgin alum countersued in January 2025, but the case was later dismissed.
Their ongoing legal battle has been steadily making headlines, with the recent revelations of unopened text messages and emails to A-listers like Taylor Swift and Ben Affleck, as well as voice messages from Lively to Baldoni, sparking social media buzz.
Last year, the Daily Mail obtained an audio message from Baldoni in which he apologized to Lively at 2 a.m. over a disagreement over a rewrite of the rooftop scene.
He quipped, lambasting the “shitholes” in the industry and what Lively “went through as a woman” during her career. “I hope that won’t be my experience.”
Their trial will begin on May 18, 2026.
