She claimed to have been left in fear for her life due to a smear campaign allegedly waged against her by erstwhile co-star Justin Baldoni – but Blake Lively was unable to pinpoint a single offensive article when challenged by his legal team.
The embattled actress made the allegation during a deposition that took place in New York at the end of last month.
Part of the transcript has now been unsealed and reveals the mom-of-four struggling to answer questions put to her by Baldoni’s legal team as well as claiming an off-the-cuff comment made by one of the actor’s publicists amounted to a serious threat to her life.
It comes the day that Taylor Swift announced her engagement to Travis Kelce – and Lively has not yet reacted to the news.
Asked about the now notorious text exchange between Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel that saw Nathan jokingly say ‘We can bury her’, Lively claimed she believed it to mean literally and described it as ‘terrifying’.
She added: ‘When they said that, I felt reputationally. When [Wayfarer co-founder] Steve Sarowitz said there would be two dead bodies by the time that he was done with us, yeah, I considered that that might be literal.’
Challenged about whether she thought she was truly in physical jeopardy, the 38-year-old responded: ‘You – as a mother, you feel like anything is – could be possible in those moments. It’s terrifying.’
Other portions of the document see Lively questioned about Jed Wallace – the Texas-based social media guru she is also suing over what she claims was an orchestrated smear campaign against her – and proved unable to point to a single offensive article either written or placed by him.
Blake Lively (right) claimed to have been left in fear for her life due to a smear campaign allegedly waged against her by erstwhile co-star Justin Baldoni (left)
Lively’s team maintains that there is evidence of a smear campaign against the actress
It comes the day that Taylor Swift announced her engagement to Travis Kelce – and Lively is yet to react to the news.
And despite her $250m lawsuit relying on Californian sex harassment laws, Lively was also forced to admit that most of It Ends With Us was filmed in New Jersey.
The latest plot twist in the long running legal saga comes days after Judge Lewis Liman ordered a tranche of evidence in the case unsealed.
Those details included invoices totaling $90,000 sent to Baldoni by Wallace and the eye-watering $9m price tag for the crisis team the 41-year-old assembled after news of tensions on set first leaked.
Also included were emails exchanged by Nathan, Baldoni’s business partner Jamey Heath and Wallace, among them an August 8, 2024, missive introducing the Texas-based publicist to Heath.
‘Please meet Jed who will be having his team assist on all social activity based off our own conversations as well as their digital plan you are in receipt of,’ Nathan wrote.
‘Jed and team has worked on some of the most monumental [behind the scenes] projects globally and I’m extremely happy to make this intro between you both.’
Wallace wrote in an email the same day: ‘We will work in lockstep with TAG [Nathan’s firm], but engaged separately.’
Lively was joined by her attorneys, while Baldoni and his attorneys were also present, along with a court reporter and a videographer to document the proceedings; pictured June 9 in NYC
Nathan referred to a two-part quote for ‘untraceable’ social media services in a text to Heath two days earlier.
‘Quote two $25k per month – min 3 months as it needs to seed same as above – this will be for creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narrative and stay on track,’ Nathan wrote.
‘All of this will be most importantly untraceable.’
Although she didn’t name Wallace or his firm in the August 6 text, she said the quotes came ‘from the two teams we use that get the best results.’
A source with knowledge of Wallace’s hiring confirmed ‘quote two’ was referring to Wallace and his firm, Street Relations.
The source said ‘creation of social fan engagement’ meant using anonymous accounts controlled by Wallace’s team to push already-existing pro-Baldoni news stories on social media and argue with Lively fans online.
But the source added that this work ended up being unnecessary due to the large amount of ‘organic’ criticism of Lively from real accounts.
Insiders close to Lively previously revealed that she was prepared to face a series of difficult inquiries at her deposition, and that her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, isn’t expected to attend; They are seen in May
Lively’s team still maintains a smear campaign took place against her, although the now unsealed transcript calls that into question.
The long-running legal drama kicked off last December when Lively sued Baldoni for $250m claiming he had behaved ‘inappropriately’ on set.
He swiftly countersued for $400m claiming defamation – a move that has led to escalating rounds of claim and counterclaims on both sides.
While Baldoni has largely emerged unscathed, the legal war has seen Lively humiliated following revelations that she referred to bestie Taylor Swift and husband Ryan Reynolds as ‘my dragons’ and compared herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi.
Swift, who was briefly subpoenaed, subsequently distanced herself from Lively with the pair not seen together since the lawsuit was launched.
The former friends have also stopped referring to each other on social media, with the actress staying silent in the wake of Swift announcing her engagement to Travis Kelce on Tuesday.
