In February, Blake Lively amended her lawsuit against Justin Baldoni and added several more explosive claims against her It Ends With Us director. Her original complaint from December 20, 2024, accused Baldoni of workplace harassment. In the new version, she claimed that Baldoni told her he could speak with her dead father.
She shared that Baldoni claimed he had talked to her father a few times. She further added that Baldoni’s comments on her father were deeply disturbing as he had only passed recently. An earlier report suggested that Baldoni’s claim was rooted in his belief in the afterlife based on his Baha’i religion.
Blake Lively was allegedly shocked to hear Justin Baldoni mention her father
Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of s*xually harassing her and creating a hostile working environment (via PEOPLE). She claimed in her lawsuit that he was trying to ruin her reputation with a smear campaign. Later, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane.
Lively updated her lawsuit in February and included some additional claims. One of the newer accusations claimed that Baldoni told her he could talk to Lively’s dead father. The lawsuit read, “For example, he claimed he could speak to the dead, and on several occasions told Ms. Lively that he had spoken to her recently-deceased father” (via The Mirror).
Lively further claimed that Baldoni told her he talked with her dead father. The Jane the Virgin actor had never met her father before. Lively shared that she tried to change the subject with a joke, “Let him know he owes me 40 bucks.” However, she shared that Baldoni wasn’t ready to drop the subject. Lively recalled their conversation in the lawsuit:
Mr. Baldoni then closed his eyes, put his hand on his heart, and said, ‘I was leaving my apartment this morning, and I reached into my pocket… and there was $40 dollars in there, that I did not put there.’
Lively shared that this particular exchange between them “deeply disturbed” her. Interestingly, many connected Baldoni’s alleged behavior to his Baha’i faith, which promoted the concept of an afterlife.
Justin Baldoni’s faith might’ve caused issues with Blake Lively
One source who worked on Justin Baldoni’s Five Feet Apart told THR that the director talked a lot about his religion on set and that it “had shades of Scientology”. However, another source from the film found his approach of “sharing feelings” and the influence of his religion refreshing.
Zackery Heern, a Baha’i follower and professor at Idaho State University, explained the extent of the religion’s influence on Baldoni’s actions. Baldoni’s alleged claim that he could talk to Lively’s dead father aligned with the religion’s strong belief in the afterlife. However, Heern noted that the religion does not encourage its followers to speak to the dead.
Lively’s complaint against Baldoni didn’t have any mention of his faith. However, religion did have a role to play in the drama between them. One of the incidents mentioned in Lively’s complaint was related to the intimate scene where Lily Bloom gives birth.
The complaint mentioned that she was alarmed to learn that Baldoni’s best friend Adam Mondschein played the doctor in the scene. Mondschein is a fellow Baha’i follower as well and he appeared in the Baha’i documentary that Baldoni produced.
Interestingly, Baldoni viewed any movie set to be a community, an extension of the concept of equality promoted by the Baha’i faith. A source working on Five Feet Apart shared that Baldoni considered everyone valuable despite the hierarchy of the production. This may have caused a power vacuum on the set of It Ends With Us, causing the issues with Lively.
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