In May, the two stars settled their long-standing legal dispute. But the ordeal began in December 2024, when Blake sued her It Ends With Us director and costar, alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign. While the majority of Blake's claims were dismissed by a judge, mainly due to her status as an independent contractor, the retaliation allegations were set to go to trial on May 18.
Jose Perez / Getty Images
A statement to BuzzFeed, sent on behalf of lawyers for both Blake and Justin (Bryan Freedman, Ellyn Garofalo, Michael Gottlieb, and Esra Hudson), read: "The end product – the movie It Ends With Us – is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors – and all survivors – is a goal that we stand behind."
Jose Perez / Getty Images
"We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online," the statement concluded.
Aeon / Getty Images
And now, Justin and his wife, Emily Baldoni, are speaking out for the first time regarding the incident in a new video.
John Nacion / Getty Images
In the Instagram video, Justin and Emily share their initial thoughts, as they said "there's so much more to say" at a later date:
“We have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years," Justin began. "And it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say, because Lord knows we have. But it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to. It didn’t feel like the right time."
"We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things, like how could something like this even happen?," Emily shared. "Let alone disguised as a fight for women. So much to unpack.”
"There have been so many painful things have been spoken into existence," Justin said. "Untruthful," Emily quickly followed up."
“And that created so much noise, and we didn’t want to add to the noise," Justin continued. "So we just wanted to let the justice system run its course.”
“We are healing, and if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear," he said. "It looks different every day.”
Before ending the video, Justin also took time to thank his supporters throughout the ordeal. "You have given your time to fight for us, and thank you does not feel like enough," he shared. “But we’re here, in large part, because of so many of you, and all of our friends and family. One thing that we’ve learned is that when God presses the reset button and everything else is stripped away, that’s when love shows up, and we feel so loved.”