Justin Baldoni admitted he “fell short” of Blake Lively’s expectations in an alleged “rambling” voice note, which appears to have been sent after the actors worked on the rooftoop scene for their movie “It Ends With Us.”
Baldoni, 41, apologized to his co-star in a six-minute message seemingly sent after the pair met to discuss a now-infamous rooftop scene from the movie in which he claimed in legal documents that he felt pressured by Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her friend, Taylor Swift, to use Lively’s rewritten scene for the film.
Lively filed a sexual harassment suit in December against Baldoni, his Wayfarer studio and former PR reps. The same day Lively filed her suit, Baldoni filed a $250 million suit against the New York Times for a December article about the alleged smear campaign.
Weeks later, Baldoni then named Lively and Reynolds in a separate $400 million defamation lawsuit in which he accused the Hollywood power couple of attempting to hijack “It Ends With Us” and create their own narrative.
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“There’s so much I want to say to you and I hope that we can FaceTime or see each other in person soon and get to talk more, but I’m just going to send you a few thoughts, and hopefully it’s not going to be more than a few minutes, but I don’t have the best track record – I don’t think either one of us have the best records for voice memos – I want to start with an apology,” Baldoni said in a purported voice note obtained by TMZ. “Man … reading the second part of your message, my heart sank, and I’m really sorry. I for sure fell short, and you worked really hard on that, and the way you framed it and how that made you feel, and I just wanted to say thank you for sharing that with me. That takes a lot of trust and vulnerability.”
“I just, I feel really grateful that you feel safe enough to tell me that’s how you feel and share that with me, and I’m really sorry. I f—-d up. That is a fail on my part. One thing you should know about me is I will admit and apologize when I fail. I am far from perfect. I am a very flawed man, as my wife will attest. I’m gonna f–k up. I’m going to say the wrong thing. I’m going to put my foot in my mouth. I’m going to piss you off probably, but I will always apologize and find my way back to center. That is one thing I can assure you of.”
In an attempt to show how Lively allegedly took control of the movie’s production, Baldoni’s legal team claimed in documents that the actress used her friendship with Taylor Swift to threaten him. While working on the film, Lively insisted on rewriting the rooftop scene. Baldoni had been hesitant about the idea but told the 37-year-old actress he would “take a look at what she put together,” according to the complaint.
Afterward, Lively invited Baldoni over to her New York City home, where the actor said he felt Swift and Reynolds pressured him into using the rewritten scene. “Later, Baldoni felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him,” the complaint said.
“And I’m sorry I made you feel that way. That must have felt terrible. I will for sure do better,” he said in the voice note. “That was not my best weekend and I should have given it more time. And, damn right, you’ve got great friends if that’s how you felt, and they knew that and, f–k, we should all have friends like that, aside from the fact that they’re two of the most creative people on the planet. The three of you guys together is unbelievable – talk about energy and just a force, all three of you.”
“But I just wanted you to know that I didn’t need that because it’s really good, and it’s going to make the movie sing like you said,” Baldoni said. “I’m excited to go through the whole movie with you. I’m just excited to spend time with you. I’m excited to be in your sphere and your presence and for us to share creative juices together, although that sounds terrible. I think you and I have been trying to build a relationship, which I think we’ve done successfully. I mean, here we are talking like this, me into my phone at 2 in the morning, but largely via text and voice note, and that, I will be honest, is not my biggest strength.”
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“I love being with people and being in somebody’s space and being face to face,” he said. “And I feel like that’s where I excel and definitely fallen short at times in our text and voice-note exchanges, because there’s so much to communicate and there’s so much happening, and all that to say I’m just really looking forward to spending time together, and I think that’s really going to go a long way for our chemistry, which I believe is there, has been there from the start. That’s why I was so damn excited when you wanted to do this film. I felt it in the room when we met and, yeah, I think it does come from the both of us being so f—ing hard-working and having a vision and not settling, and I’m excited to have a creative partner in that with you, it’s just really exciting.”
Baldoni continued, “There’s so much more to say, there’s so much more I want to say. Oh, there’s one thing that I do need to say, which is, I am so sorry you have been through what you’ve been through with these other filmmakers and producers or whoever the people were that you worked with. It just pissed me off. Those f—heads. I’m just still kind of blown away that this is the industry that we’re in and that you’ve experienced that as a woman, and I know I don’t need to say it, but that’s not at all going to be or will be. Hopefully it’s not been the experience with me. There’s nothing more exciting to me that I get to work with Blake Lively, and I get to have her, all of her. I mean, that’s what I want.
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“And so, there’s been no hesitancy with me sending you the final draft file. I am totally fine with that. The only reason I didn’t send it today was because I was trying to implant and add your notes into my working draft, which is, already, I’m all over that draft right now. So, there’s a whole bunch of new stars that are going to be collated pages, and I just haven’t had a chance to send it to you. But there’s no hesitancy, I’m happy to send it to you, and I’m sorry that has happened to you before. And I hope after this experience there will be a new, I don’t know, I hope it will be healing in some way. That’s all I want.”
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“I want this movie to be healing,” Baldoni said. “I want this movie to be commercial just like you and affect people and touch people, and I want to walk you through my whole plan and the work that we’re doing with the domestic violence partner that we found, No More, and just my vision. And I just know that this can be really, really special, and it’s going to be special, and you’re the secret sauce. We’re the secret sauce.
“And, anyways, I have so much more to say, I’m going to stop rambling because, Jesus Christ, it’s been six minutes and 30 seconds, f— me, I’m sorry. You probably have kids all over you and a baby on your boob, and you’re listening to me ramble at 2 in the morning. I hope you’re feeling better and give Ryan my love. Thank you for sending me that. It means the world to me that you trust me with your feelings and your thoughts like that, and I can’t wait to spend more time with you. OK, I’m done, cutting myself off, goodnight.”
Representatives for Baldoni and Lively did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Judge Lewis J. Liman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered a trial set for March 9, 2026. An originally scheduled pretrial conference for Feb. 12 was rescheduled for Feb. 3.
