The It Ends With Us legal saga continues. On December 24, The New York Times reported that Justin Baldoni’s former publicist, Stephanie Jones, is suing him over the smear campaign he allegedly helped organize to tarnish Blake Lively’s reputation. Stephanie’s suit came just days after Blake’s legal complaint that accuses Justin of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment, and retaliating against her in the form of a vicious smear campaign. (Justin’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has since called the actress’ allegations “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt” in a statement to People.) Stephanie is now taking legal action against Justin, Justin’s film studio, Wayfarer, his current publicist, Jennifer Abel, and his crisis PR manager, Melissa Nathan.
So, why exactly is Justin Baldoni’s former publicist suing him now? Let’s break down Stephanie Jones’ lawsuit.
Justin Baldoni’s Former Publicist’s Lawsuit Against Him, Explained
Why Is Justin Baldoni’s Former Publicist Suing Him?
Stephanie is accusing Justin’s current PR team of “secretly conspiring” to damage her reputation, steal her clients, and make her look responsible for the smear campaign against Blake, according to The New York Times. She’s also accusing Justin, his studio, Wayfarer, and his publicist, Jennifer, of breaching their contracts with her company, Jonesworks.
The prolific text message evidence seen in Blake’s legal complaint is mostly conversations between Jennifer and Justin’s crisis PR manager, Melissa. Stephanie claims that Jennifer used to work for her company until Stephanie fired her last summer upon discovering that Jennifer was stealing documents from the firm and using them to start her own business. Yikes. Per the New York Times report, Stephanie alleges that she was “forced” out of representing Justin and Wayfarer “amid concerns that Ms. Lively would go public with accusations of misconduct against him.” But after Jennifer was fired from Jonesworks, she opened her own firm and continued to work with Wayfarer.
According to Stephanie’s suit, the text messages in Blake’s complaint came from Jennifer’s Jonesworks company phone. Stephanie claims that she saw the messages and reviewed them after she’d already fired Jennifer and Wayfarer had already stopped working with Jonesworks. Stephanie says it was then that she realized Jennifer had been allegedly involved in this smear campaign against Blake.
Stephanie claims that Jennifer and Melissa began “to formulate a no-holds-barred strategy to discredit and suppress any potential revelations about Baldoni’s on set behavior” without her knowledge or approval. She explicitly accuses them of launching “a smear campaign” against Blake and “using the crisis as an opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni, and to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones.”
Justin and his lawyer have not yet publicly responded to Stephanie’s allegations.