After a five-month hiatus, Justin Baldoni returned to Instagram with a heartfelt post in honor of Mother’s Day.
“My mom gave us faith. My wife is the definition of it. Our children are growing up in the fortress of that love,” Baldoni, 41, wrote via an Instagram post on Sunday, May 11, alongside a photo of himself flanked by wife, Emily Baldoni, and mother, Sharon Baldoni, as the director’s two children wrapped their arms around the smiling clan. “Happy Mother’s Day to all ❤️.”
The last Instagram post shared by Baldon – who has been embroiled in a legal battle with his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively since December 2024 when Lively, 37, filed a sexual harassment complaint against him — went live 10 days prior to Lively’s December filing. (Baldoni has denied all accusations made against him by Lively.)
Sunday’s Instagram resurfacing, which attracted more than 40,000 likes in 15 minutes, drew a slew of supportive messages from Baldoni’s fans. “We stand with you Justin!!” wrote one of Baldoni’s 4.2 million followers, while another wrote, “We are thinking about you Justin ❤️ you and the family are adored ❤️.”
The post made no reference to the latest developments in Baldoni’s legal saga with Lively, which includes Lively’s attorney’s reportedly seeking access to Baldoni’s financial records to determine if his defamation lawsuit against Lively, Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds and Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloane can be proven. (After Lively’s December 20, 2024, lawsuit was filed, Baldoni filed his own $400 million lawsuit against the trio on January 16.)
Lively’s initial lawsuit accused her former costar and director of creating a hostile work environment and engaging in sexual harassment. Her lawsuit alleged that Baldoni inflicted “severe emotional distress” on Lively throughout the making of the film, of which Baldoni has also denied.
Baldoni and his company Wayfarer Studios’ $400 million defamation lawsuit saw Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman accusing the actress of a “duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
Lively and Reynolds have both denied the accusations.
Lively’s recent request for access to Baldoni’s financial records comes on the back of his lawyers subpoenaing Taylor Swift on Friday, May 9, for potential testimony in the forthcoming Baldoni-Lively trial, set to begin on March 9, 2026.
Us Weekly obtained court documents in January in which Baldoni’s legal team alleged that he and Lively exchanged text messages about Swift and Reynolds, purportedly offering feedback on the It Ends With Us’ rooftop scene. Swift allowed her song “My Tears Ricochet” to be used in the film.
A spokesperson for Swift told Us in response to the subpoena, “Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film. She did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history.”
The statement concluded, “The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.’ Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”
The Baldoni-Lively trial’s discovery period continues.
