Justin Baldoni once gushed over Blake Lively’s beauty, according to a newly released voice memo.
“Hey Blake I hope the fitting was super successful, thank you for sending me those pictures,” Baldoni, 42, told Lively, 38, in the message, which was obtained by TMZ on Monday, February 2. “That was really cool. I was in the department head meeting and I was waiting for them to load and I legit got the chills when I saw it. You look beautiful. It’s going to work so well.”
Per TMZ, the voice memo was sent before It Ends With Us began filming in 2023. Baldoni, who was Lively’s costar and director on the film, appeared to be discussing the Gossip Girl alum’s costuming.
Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni and Lively for comment.
The memo is the latest unsealed court exhibit, and comes just days after Us Weekly obtained a separate memo from Lively in which she spoke affectionately toward Baldoni while discussing how overwhelmed she felt with returning to work and filming back-to-back projects after giving birth to her fourth baby. (Lively shares daughters James, 11, Inez, 9, and Betty 6, and son Olin, 2, with husband Ryan Reynolds.)
“Hey. I hope you’re so well. Just wanted to connect just to put something on your radar. So, between us. Like, this is so premature for me to even share this with you. All good, all good stuff. Headline is great, good, great stuff,” Lively began in the message, which was sent in February 2023 during pre-production. “But I was talking to Ryan [Reynolds] and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I should share this,’ but he was like, ‘You guys have such a great trust, you know. Fill him in.’”
She continued, “Just the idea of going back to work every day right away and also the idea of, you know, prepping for our movie and wanting to work out every day and all that and yet being on set every day. I’m like, ‘What have I done?’ The only reason that I’m doing [that movie] before is because I gave them my word and I wouldn’t go back on that and felt like I had to make it work. But having a week off in between, it’s just a lot. It’s a lot.”
Lively explained that she was “panicking” the closer “reality” of shooting got, confessing she really only wanted to “focus” on It Ends With Us.
“Obviously, there’s selfish reasons I’m telling you this,” she quipped. “If by chance you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, if I could go two weeks earlier, that would actually be great,’ then amazing. And if it is what it is, then it is what it is.”
She added, “Selfishly, what I would love about that, is that Ryan and I have also been really stressed about spending a month apart. None of it is your problem. That’s why I’m talking to you as a friend at this point more than anything but the idea of spending all of June apart is a lot. The most we have ever done is less than two weeks.”
At the end of her voice note, Lively concluded, “So nice talking to you. Not talking to you, this is so sad. This is my social interaction these days, just talking into voice memos. OK, I hope you’re well. Send my love to your family who don’t know me. Take care, bye.”
Both of the costars’ voice memos were sent nearly one year before Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment and trying to ruin her reputation. Baldoni denied all the allegations against him and countersued Lively, but the lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025. Lively’s suit remains ongoing and the pair are scheduled to head to trial in May.
The voice memos are just a small piece of recent unsealed documents that contain thousands of emails, text messages, depositions and more pertaining to the case. Reynolds, 49, Taylor Swift, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate and It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover are just a few mentioned or featured in the docs.
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