“Yes, Ryan got involved — what husband wouldn’t support his wife and the mother of his children?” the representative for Reynolds stated.
Following the release of private text messages from the actor amid the legal dispute between Reynolds’ wife Blake Lively and her costar and director of It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni, a representative for Reynolds is stepping in to defend him.
Reynolds’ representative told Puck News, “Yes, Ryan became involved—what husband wouldn’t support his wife and the mother of his children?”
He witnessed his wife battling every day to respectfully and privately confront sexual harassment, only to be retaliated against for it,” his representative added in a statement. Ryan feels that he wasn’t furious enough, if anything. He fervently supports and will defend his wife’s and others’ fundamental right to a safe workplace free from harassment and retaliation. Then, now, and forever.
According to PEOPLE, one of Reynolds’ texts that was recently made public as part of the ongoing legal proceedings was sent to his WME agent, Warren Zavala, in August 2024. As rumors of possible drama between the director and cast grew at the time, Lively and Baldoni’s film It Ends With Us was released to enormous box office success.
“Blake should be celebrating this moment, which is why I’m so frustrated. She WILLED this weekend into reality,” he allegedly wrote at the time, adding, “she made this unbelievable win happen.” It would be better for Baldoni and these other idiots to own up to the rumors and rumors themselves. Right now, they ought to be leaping in front of it in the most unqualified, full-throated manner possible.
Reynolds allegedly continued by saying that Lively “should not be subjected to some eye-roll-y narrative of the ‘controlling bitch,'” and that Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios team had “made a big f—ing mess.”
The Deadpool actor allegedly called Baldoni a “thoroughbred, predatory fraudster” and a “inexplicably toxic mess” in another unsealed text message from July 2024 to a WME executive.
When asked about the unsealed documents, Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni, told EW, “As stated all along, and reflected in our clients’ motions, as well as in messages from Sony discussing Ms. Lively’s behaviors, the evidence does not support the claims as a matter of law.” “The truth is readily apparent from a cursory reading of the recently made public message exchanges. We continue to have faith in the legal system and the clearing of all Justin Baldoni parties’ names.”
When Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing the star and director of It Ends With Us of sexual harassment on set and claiming that he orchestrated a smear campaign against her earlier that year, she started her legal battle with Baldoni. Soon after, she sued Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer, in federal court in New York.
Later, Baldoni retaliated by suing Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist Leslie Sloane for $400 million, alleging breach of contract, defamation, and civil extortion. In June, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed his countersuit, finding that Lively’s allegations could not be deemed defamatory.
