Rabat – For nearly two years, Justin Baldoni said nothing in public. Not when Blake Lively accused him of sexual harassment.

Not even after he countersued Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist for defamation, or as a judge began dismantling both sides’ claims one by one. 

This week, that silence finally broke, but not with the score-settling many expected.

A 5-minute video on Instagram

On Wednesday, Baldoni and his wife, Emily, a video on Instagram addressed to his roughly 4 million followers. 

The video ran almost five minutes and never once mentioned Lively, the film, or the lawsuit explicitly.

Instead, the couple spoke in the language of survival, gratitude, faith, and healing while gesturing at a pain they clearly still feel.

Justin Baldoni opened by explaining the long silence, stating, “So we have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say, because Lord knows we have”.

He said the timing had never felt right, and that something had always held them back from posting.

Justin said the reason was to avoid adding to “the noise” and instead let the justice system run its course.

The underlying case

The dispute traces back to December 2024, when Lively filed a civil rights complaint alleging sexual harassment during production of “It Ends With Us,” the Colleen Hoover adaptation Baldoni both directed and starred in.

She also accused Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, of orchestrating a smear campaign against her; allegations both have denied by the judge. 

The two sides eventually filed competing lawsuits, which were consolidated into a single case in January 2025.

The presiding judge dismissed Baldoni’s countersuit against Lively, Reynolds, and their team in June 2025, and earlier this year the judge dismissed most of Lively’s harassment and defamation claims as well, while allowing a narrower retaliation claim against Baldoni’s publicity team to proceed.

The healing

The back half of the video shifted from the legal to the personal. Justin described the family’s recovery in the vocabulary of trauma work: healing.

He credited faith, community, and the couple’s children with holding them together.

Emily suggested the story isn’t finished and that when the right time comes, they will address it.

She said there’s more the couple wants to say eventually, but for now their focus is on healing and enjoying time with their kids.