Blake Lively accuses Justin Baldoni of using 'abuser playbook' in $400M defamation lawsuit

Blake Lively's legal team fires back, accusing Justin Baldoni of retaliation amidst ongoing legal disputes.

Blake Lively's legal team strongly accused Justin Baldoni of employing tactics commonly seen in abusers' behavior in his $400 million lawsuit against her and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. 

Baldoni, along with his publicists, filed a defamation lawsuit against the couple, claiming that Lively orchestrated a scheme to ruin their careers and damage their reputation by making false claims of sexual harassment. 

The court documents, exclusively obtained by DailyMail.com, accuse Lively and Reynolds of leveraging their celebrity status to hijack the domestic abuse film *It Ends With Us*, which Baldoni both starred in and directed.

This new defamation lawsuit marks the latest turn in a complex legal battle that began shortly before Christmas when Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging he sexually harassed her and created a hostile work environment on the set of the movie. Baldoni has denied these allegations.

In response to Baldoni's lawsuit, Lively’s legal team issued a passionate statement to DailyMail.com, calling the action "another chapter in the abuser playbook."

They added, "This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation, and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender."

The statement further claimed that Baldoni's production company, Wayfarer Studios, used its billionaire co-founder's resources to release media statements, file frivolous lawsuits, and threaten legal action to confuse the public and retaliate against the sexual harassment claims.

Lively’s attorneys went on to say, “They are trying to shift the narrative to Ms. Lively by falsely claiming that she seized creative control and alienated the cast from Mr. Baldoni. The evidence will show that the cast and others had their own negative experiences with Mr. Baldoni and Wayfarer."

“They will also show that Sony asked Ms. Lively to oversee Sony’s cut of the film, which they then selected for distribution and was a resounding success.”

The statement continued, "Their response to sexual harassment allegations: she wanted it, it’s her fault. Their justification for why this happened to her: look what she was wearing."

It concluded, "In short, while the victim focuses on the abuse, the abuser focuses on the victim. The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail.”