The It Ends With Us legal battle continues — but this time it’s between star Blake Lively and a Texas crisis communications specialist and his company, Street Relations.
Jed Wallace and Street Relations are suing the actor for defamation after Lively allegedly pulled them into her legal fight with co-star and director Justin Baldoni over the film.
Wallace filed a $7-million lawsuit in federal court in Texas on Tuesday, stating that he had nothing to do with any campaign to harm Lively’s reputation as she alleged in a court filing from December 2024. He is also seeking a court order stating that he didn’t engage in harassment or retaliation against Lively.
This came after the Gossip Girl actor filed a petition on Jan. 21 seeking a deposition from Wallace, who Lively alleges was used by publicists working with Baldoni to weaponize “a digital army around the country, including in New York and Los Angeles, to create, seed, manipulate, and advance disparaging content that appeared to be authentic on social media platforms and internet chat forums.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lively’s petition seeking a court order to depose Wallace was dropped on Tuesday.
Wallace is not among the defendants in Lively’s federal lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company and publicists, in which she alleges sexual and other harassment during the production and a campaign to smear her after it. The crisis specialist is named in the court papers and the New York Times story published on the day the series of legal battles began in December, when Lively filed a complaint.
Wallace’s 10-page lawsuit says neither he nor Street Relations “had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation,” according to court documents. (Global News has not independently viewed the documents.)
“The statements of fact, actual or implied, of and concerning Plaintiffs in the Precursor and CRD Complaint are false, defamatory, made with either negligence or ‘actual malice’ and have caused millions of dollars in reputational harm including both general and special damages through emotional harm (Wallace), actual damages and real and projected loss of business (Wallace and Street) in an amount that exceeds $1,000,000,” Wallace’s filing read.
“As Lively later admitted she knew of no facts to support the allegations,” Charles Babcock, a lawyer for Wallace, wrote in the complaint. “Neither Wallace nor Street had anything to do with the alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, failure to investigate or aiding and abetting the alleged harassment or alleged retaliation. Neither could they have breached a contract with Lively because no such contract exists.”
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In response to the lawsuit, Lively’s legal team said, “Another day, another state, another nine-figure lawsuit seeking to sue Ms. Lively ‘into oblivion’ for speaking out against sexual harassment and retaliation.”
“This is not just a publicity stunt — it is transparent retaliation in response to allegations contained within a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint that Ms. Lively filed with the California Civil Rights Department,” her lawyers added in their statement to media. “While this lawsuit will be dismissed, we are pleased that Mr. Wallace has finally emerged from the shadows, and that he too will be held accountable in federal court.”
Wallace’s lawyer Babcock released a statement in response to Lively’s legal team. He referred to Wallace as “a very private person, who has never met or spoken to Ms. Lively. Ever.”
“He has not engaged in a smear campaign against her at any point in time. The decision to file this lawsuit to rightfully protect himself and his family was made after Ms. Lively not only filed against him first in Texas but, indicated she intended to name him in yet another lawsuit,” Babcock said.
The ongoing legal battle between the It Ends With Us co-stars began after Lively sued Baldoni and he filed his own federal lawsuit against her and her husband, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion and seeking at least $400 million in damages.
Baldoni had already sued the New York Times for libel, and his former publicist filed a lawsuit taking Lively’s side.
Lively and Baldoni’s case headed to court on Feb. 3 as Lively’s legal team began to discuss a potential gag order.
On Feb. 3, a U.S. judge admonished lawyers for Baldoni and Lively not to publicly discuss the actors’ competing civil lawsuits. Lively’s lawyer Michael Gottlieb complained to U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman at a hearing in Manhattan federal court that Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman violated professional ethics rules for lawyers by accusing Lively of “bullying.”
“It’s very hard to un-ring the bell,” Gottlieb said, arguing that such statements could taint the jury pool for the scheduled March 9, 2026 trial.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman suggested that his comments to People and in a podcast appearance were a response to the Dec. 21 New York Times article that “completely devastated” Baldoni.
“This has not been a one-way street,” he said.
Liman adopted a New York state rule barring most out-of-court statements that could affect a case’s outcome, with an exception for protecting a client from prejudicial adverse publicity.
The judge could sanction lawyers for violations. Neither Gottlieb nor Freedman objected. Baldoni and Lively were not in attendance at the hearing.
Lively’s lawyers Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said in a statement, “We are pleased with the result of today’s hearing and eager to move forward immediately with discovery in this case.”
“The court granted our request that all attorneys in the matter actually follow the rule of law and not make any statements that could prejudice a jury,” they continued. “This case deals with serious allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. We will hold the defendants accountable, and we are confident that once all the evidence is submitted in this matter, Ms. Lively will prevail.”
Freedman said, “I couldn’t be more pleased with how the case was handled today. We’re going to move as quickly as possible and prove our innocence.”
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a domestic total of nearly $150 million. The success was followed by near-constant turmoil over its production and promotion.
—With files from The Associated Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
