Justin Baldoni Faces Defamation Suit Over Blake Lively Allegation by Ex-Publicist

Justin Baldoni is likely facing an even worse Christmas than expected, amid sexual harassment, retaliation and It ends with us Things were looking pretty bad after Blake Lively’s defamation claims.

Increasingly shunned by Hollywood celebrities, podcast co-hosts and nonprofits due to Lively’s accusations that paint the one-time feminist ally as misogynistic, petty and somehow stupid, Baldoni has just filed his first formal lawsuit amid the widening scandal. Now Stephanie Jones, the founder of the Jane, the virgin Veterinary’s former PR firm is pursuing him, his Wayfarer Studios and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel for defamation, breach of contract and more.

“Defendants Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to attack Jones and Jonesworks publicly and privately, breach and induce breaches of multiple contracts, and steal customers and business prospects,” says an eight-count lawsuit, which is that of Quinn Emanuel represented PR boss submitted this Christmas Eve.

“Behind Jones’ back, they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to wage an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s co-star in the film, and then used the crisis as an opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni and publicly accept responsibility for it “Smear campaign against Jones – even though Jones neither knew about it nor was involved in it,” the jury filing in New York state court adds.

RELATED: Sony condemns “any reputational attacks” on Blake Lively from Justin Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign against the It Ends With Us co-star.

In the middle of all the BTS IEWU After chaos reigned both on and off set, Abel left Jonesworks in early July to start her own PR firm, RWA Communications.

Jones’ suit portrays this as a sudden departure from the jump using clearly underhanded methods. But even though Abel claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post that Jones was fully aware of the planned astroturfing campaign against Lively, Baldoni, Wayfarer and several others pulled the trigger Customers with her to her new company. While Jones is seeking a variety of unspecified damages and court orders against the defendants, Abel appears to have until recently maintained a professional relationship with Nathan’s crisis PR firm, TAG.

RELATED: Justin Baldoni rep admits PR team made ‘sophomoric’ comments against Blake Lively, but claims there was no smear campaign despite sexual harassment allegations

“To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to falsely point the finger at Jones after their own misconduct comes to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” Jones and Jonesworks’ lawsuit states, denying any involvement or involvement Knowledge about what was going on.

Of course, that, along with allegations of downloading and stealing company documents and clients, are standard fare in such PR breakups. What could become a new norm, however, is the notoriously hard-edged Jones’ file, like Lively’s file late last week with the California Department of Civil Rights, full of seemingly incriminating texts between the now-defendants.

RELATED: ‘It Ends With Us’ Jenny Slate Calls Attack on Blake Lively ‘Terribly Dark, Disturbing and Utterly Menacing’

In this case, after her efforts at arbitration are rebuffed, Jones drops some bombshells of her own that could destroy the relationship between now-ex-employee Abel and ex-client Baldoni. For example: “I can’t stand it. He is so pompous,” says a text message that Abel sent to an unknown recipient about Baldoni earlier this year. It goes on to say, “You’re not that important and no one cares how hard your life is.”

In another text, Abel apparently talks badly about his friend Nathan, with whom she supposedly works: “She’s a piece of shit.”

Ouch!

Jones claims that Baldoni and Wayfarer had just re-engaged with Jonesworks from May 2024 to May 2025 and were paid $25,000 per month for flack duties, saying: “The misconduct of Abel, Nathan, Baldoni and Wayfarer had significant negative consequences Impact on Jones’ work and the business and reputation of Jonesworks. Neither Abel nor Nathan and their shared attorney Bryan Freedman responded to Deadline’s request for comment on Jones’ claims or legal action. If this is the case, this post will be updated.

Baldoni also did not comment.

The actor/producer, who was briefly seen in town this week, was fired from Lively and Reynolds’ former agency, WME, on December 21. This earns rejection from across the city as Lively is embraced by A-listers, co-stars, SAG-AFTRA and more for her “courage” to speak out about the alleged harassment and the media and online efforts to denounce her to express “destroy”. But as this is surely the first in a series of lawsuits, which will likely include one from Lively himself in the next two weeks, Jones’ actions today are seen in some circles as an attempt to distance himself from it It ends with us Wreak havoc and get revenge on Abel for quitting.

Additionally, sources with knowledge of Abel’s exit from Jonesworks say he wasn’t as frayed as Jones now tells it. While Abel announced her resignation from Joneswork on July 10 after four years, the lackey actually remained with the company for several more weeks. During this time, Jones tried unsuccessfully to get her to stay, with even Jones’ husband and WME agent Jason Hodes getting involved at one point.

Playing defense and offense at the same time, Jones aims to rule out any suggestion of Adel (aka: “derive from it what you will,” as her now-deleted Facebook post from last weekend put it) that it was leaked or preemptive Abel’s texts and other communications on Jonesworks devices were delivered to Lively’s legal team for use as part of their CCRD submission.

Jones’ filing states:

To the best of her knowledge, since her firing from Jonesworks, Abel has continued to attack Jones in the industry, using her tried-and-tested playbook to preemptively discredit any sources that might shed light on her own misdeeds. Abel has falsely stated to others in the public relations industry that Jones attempted to distribute manipulated text messages purporting to be from Abel in retaliation for Abel’s departure. She has also again attempted to point the finger at Jones to obscure her own role in the campaign against Lively’s release. But Jones has never tampered with text messages and has no reason to. Abel’s text messages were forensically extracted directly from the company phone that Abel used during her employment at Jonesworks and were voluntarily returned to Jonesworks after her termination in the presence of an employment lawyer, Jonesworks’ chief of staff, and an IT specialist and preserved in their original condition. And as has been clearly shown, the text messages themselves are enough to convict Abel and Nathan without the need for manipulation.

Which, for all its blemishes, lines up with what Lively’s own legal team told Deadline on December 23 about how they got hold of those texts and whatnot.

“The subpoena disclosed and referred to in the statement of claim was served on Jonesworks LLC,” a member of the Praetorian Guard’s lawyers Liveley Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and Willkie Farr & Gallagher told Deadline Monday. “The internal documents referenced in the complaint were produced subject to this subpoena. We expect further details regarding the subpoena process will be released as the investigation continues.”

Aside from the fact that it’s always easier to find something when you know where to look, these subpoena explanations don’t shed much light on how Lively’s team even learned about the texts in question and more, or knew where to look must.

You heard it here, this is really just the beginning.