The Moment
In case you missed the latest installment of It Ends With Us: The Off-Screen Version, a private voice note from Justin Baldoni to Blake Lively has leaked — right before the two face off in court.
In the audio, recorded around early 2023 during prep for their movie It Ends With Us, Baldoni thanks Lively for sending costume photos of her character, Lily Bloom, and lays on the praise.
He says he was in a department-head meeting when the photos came through, he “legit got the chills” waiting for them to load, and then tells her, “You look beautiful. It’s going to work so well.”
The clip was published by a celebrity news site on Monday, just days after another unsealed message surfaced from February 2023, in which Lively calls Baldoni a “friend” and talks about the “great trust” between them at the time.
Justin Baldoni calls Blake Lively beautiful in leaked voice note: ‘Legit got the chills’ https://t.co/iAtNeB7akg pic.twitter.com/wPfCCwOF2f
— Page Six (@PageSix) February 2, 2026
Fast-forward to now: that same pair of co-workers is locked in a long, ugly legal fight. Lively has accused Baldoni of sexual harassment. He has strongly denied the allegations. A trial date is set for May 18, 2026.
The Take
Let’s be honest: directors telling their leading ladies they look “beautiful” in costume is not exactly a once-in-a-lifetime event. Hollywood runs on flattery and fittings.
What makes this voice note feel different is not what he said, but when and why we’re hearing it.
We’re not supposed to be in that conversation. It’s a private workplace exchange from a time when they were clearly on good terms. Now it’s being served up to the public like Exhibit A in the court of public opinion.
I’m not here to tell you whether this message proves anything about the harassment claims — because it doesn’t. A warm, friendly working relationship in early 2023 can absolutely coexist with someone later saying, “This crossed a line for me.” Both realities can be true at different points in time.
What the leak does show is how modern celebrity scandals work: it’s less “he said, she said” and more “he said, she texted, they DMed, someone leaked, and now you’re all amateur jurors.” Every scrap of communication becomes a weapon, or a shield, depending on who’s holding it up.
If you’ve ever had an old email dragged into a workplace dispute, you know the feeling. Something casual suddenly gets read out with courtroom seriousness. A compliment that sounded fine in the moment can sound creepy, clumsy, or totally benign when stripped of tone and history. Context doesn’t just matter — it’s everything.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: we still don’t have that context. We don’t have all the messages, all the days on set, all the conversations that happened when no one was screen-recording.
So when I hear this clip, what jumps out to me isn’t “aha, proof!” It’s how messy and invasive it is that we’re listening to co-workers’ private messages at all. The leak feels less like clarity and more like a PR tug of war, with the rest of us being dragged along the rope.
If this legal battle is a divorce, this voice note is the wedding video someone just queued up in the middle of mediation. It might show there was once warmth — but it doesn’t tell you what broke.
Receipts
- Confirmed: A private voice note from early 2023 features Justin Baldoni thanking Blake Lively for costume photos for It Ends With Us, saying he “got the chills” when he saw them and telling her she looked “beautiful.” The audio was published by a celebrity news outlet in early February 2026.
- Confirmed: A separate unsealed message from February 2023 shows Lively calling Baldoni a “friend” and saying her husband encouraged she share concerns with him because they had “such a great trust,” according to widely reported coverage of the court documents.
- Confirmed: Lively filed a lawsuit in December 2024, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment. He has publicly and firmly denied the allegations.
- Confirmed: Baldoni filed a countersuit in January 2025; that countersuit was later dismissed, based on multiple reports citing court records.
- Confirmed: The two co-starred in It Ends With Us, which filmed in 2023 and resumed production in early 2024 after industry strikes, and was released in August 2024.
- Confirmed: Their ongoing case has led to unsealed communications involving several major A-listers they both know, including high-profile musicians and actors, as noted in coverage of the filings.
- Confirmed: The case is currently scheduled to go to court on May 18, 2026.
- Unverified/Context Unknown: Who leaked the voice note, why it was leaked now, and how (or if) this particular clip fits into either side’s legal strategy. Those details haven’t been confirmed in public filings.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
Blake Lively, best known from Gossip Girl and a long list of rom-coms and thrillers, and Justin Baldoni, an actor-director who starred in Jane the Virgin and directed Five Feet Apart, teamed up for the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel It Ends With Us.
The movie, a romantic drama that deals with domestic abuse and complicated love, was already under a spotlight thanks to Hoover’s massive fanbase. Lively led the film as Lily, with Baldoni directing and also appearing on screen. On paper, it was a buzzy collaboration between a beloved TV alum and a director trying to carve out his lane in emotional, relationship-centered stories.
But after the film’s release in August 2024, rumors started swirling that things between Lively and Baldoni had soured behind the scenes. By December 2024, Lively had taken the serious step of suing him for sexual harassment. Baldoni responded publicly, denying the allegations, then filed his own case against her, which was later dismissed. Since then, newly unsealed messages, scheduling emails, and friendly exchanges have trickled out, each one instantly dissected online.
What’s Next
In the legal world, the real action happens in the courtroom, not in leaked audio clips. The trial date, currently set for May 18, 2026, is when sworn testimony and full context will finally matter more than who got to the press first.
Before then, expect more unsealed communications to surface — maybe more voice notes, more texts, maybe even messages involving other famous friends. Each new drip will be packaged as a bombshell, but it’s worth remembering: none of us are on the jury, and what plays as headline drama for us is real-life, high-stakes fallout for them.
The bigger question, beyond this one case, is what this era of leaked receipts is doing to work relationships in general. If every message to a boss, a co-star, or a collaborator can be pulled into daylight years later, how honest is anyone really going to be in private?
As we head toward May, the most useful thing we can do from the sidelines might be the least dramatic: sit with the idea that two things can be true at once — people can once trust each other deeply and later feel profoundly wronged — and let the actual evidence, not just the leaked snippets, do the talking.
What do you make of this leaked voice note — genuine workplace warmth caught in the crossfire, or a line that would give you pause if you heard it from your own boss or co-worker?
Sources: Multiple entertainment news reports and publicly reported court records from February 2023 through February 2026.
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