PR Battle Behind Baldoni-Lively Fight Escalates

Leading up to the premiere of It Ends With Us last year, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni reached an uneasy truce in which it was agreed that neither side would bad-mouth the other to the press. As far as they were concerned, it was in their best interest to keep the peace in order not to undermine the movie.

But around that time, Stephanie Jones, the then-publicist for the film’s production company, reached out to a Daily Mail reporter over a story it had published about the simmering feud despite Baldoni’s instructions not to, with the aim of quelling concerns that she wasn’t engaged in the public relations dispute, according to a lawsuit filed on Friday against the Jonesworks founder. Shortly after, Baldoni dropped Jones’ firm and signaled his intent to follow his publicist at Jonesworks, Jennifer Abel, to her newly launched PR shop. This caused Jones to seize Abel’s phone, which had confidential information relating to Baldoni production banner Wayfarer that was used as ammunition in Lively’s lawsuit accusing the It Ends With Us director and his PR team of orchestrating a smear campaign, the lawsuit says.

Wayfarer brings claims against Jones for breach of contract, while Abel brings claims for fraud, invasion of privacy and unfair competition, among others.

“It is undeniable that Stephanie Jones initiated this catastrophic sequence of events by violating the most basic of privacy rights, as well as any remaining trust her clients held,” said Bryan Freedman, Wayfarer’s lawyer, in a statement.

Kristin Tahler, a lawyer for Jones, said that Wayfarer’s lawsuit is a “work of fiction masquerading as the counterclaims.” She added in a statement that Abel “conspired with Melissa Nathan and others to steal reams of confidential documents, clients and staff and eventually attempt to destroy the business that Ms. Jones spent decades building.”

The countersuit, filed after Jones sued Baldoni and Abel in her own breach of contract complaint, marks the latest legal salvo in the sprawling litigation over the filming and PR maneuvering behind It Ends With Us. While the criss-crossing lawsuits between Lively and Baldoni have grabbed most headlines, also involved are the publicists who allegedly spearheaded the smear campaigns.

In Jones’ suit, the publicist claimed that Abel had planned for months to leave Jonesworks and left with the firm’s clients while also besmirching Jones’ professional reputation. She alleged that Nathan, who joined Baldoni’s PR team as a crisis PR specialist as the feud grew, encouraged Abel to leave in order to gain Jonesworks’ clients. 

Wayfarer offers a clashing account of events that led up to Lively publicizing claims of sexual misconduct in the filming of the movie. It faults Jones for the deterioration of their relationship, which culminated in the Jonesworks founder voluntarily handing over information to Lively’s team in violation of their contract.

For nearly four years, Abel managed Jonesworks’ account with Wayfarer and Baldoni. The firm had a one-year contract with Baldoni at a rate of $20,000 per month (Jones said in her lawsuit it was $25,000 per month).

By July 2024, Wayfarer, which was growing increasingly frustrated at its perception that Jones viewed it as a “lower prestige client” behind the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Chris Hemsworth and Jeff Bezos, alleges that Jones was “bleeding clients and personnel” as Business Insider reported an unflattering story about her firm, the lawsuit says. Around that time, Abel gave notice to Jones and said that she intended to start her own company. Jones was allegedly concerned the company would follow Abel to her new shop, according to the complaint. The lawsuit also claims that Jones pushed back against Wayfarer bringing on Nathan as a crisis PR specialist.

“When Jones inserted herself into the mix in July-August 2024, she was transparently seeking to box out Nathan and Abel,” states the complaint. “The problem, however, was that Jones had chosen not to be privy to Wayfarer leadership’s communications strategy or internal decision- making, having long claimed to be too busy with higher profile clients. Wayfarer was fine with Jones’ disengagement, as Abel was their trusted advisor, and they had no interest in being a pawn in Jonesworks office politics.”

In her lawsuit, Abel says she was terminated after Jones breached an agreement between Wayfarer and Lively not to undermine each other through the media.

“Wayfarer’s leadership was livid. As was Sony,” writes Mitchell Schuster, a lawyer for Wayfarer, in the countersuit. “All parties were desperate to prevent an all-out slugfest between Lively and Baldoni just as the Film was about to be released to the world. With her reckless and unauthorized activities, Jones had made that scenario much more likely.”

In August, Abel was terminated by Jones and her phone seized. Jones then shared confidential information relating to Wayfarer and Baldoni with Leslie Sloane, Lively’s publicist, the lawsuit says.

Jones denies accusations that she voluntarily handed over the contents of Abel’s phone and that she was forced to turn it over under a subpoena issued by Lively’s lawyers, according to her legal team.

Read Tahler’s full statement below:

Ms. Jones’ lawsuit is based entirely on facts and concrete evidence. That suit clearly shows that Jen Abel conspired with Melissa Nathan and others to steal reams of confidential documents, clients and staff and eventually attempt to destroy the business that Ms. Jones spent decades building.

Abel, Nathan, Baldoni and their co-defendants attempted to achieve these outcomes through bullying distortion and outright disparagement. These facts are backed up by dozens of messages provided in the suit we filed month ago and cannot be credibly disputed. 

Having no facts or evidence, we see a familiar playbook — smear our client, culminating in the work of fiction masquerading as the counterclaims that were filed yesterday.

Read Freedman’s full statement below:

It is undeniable that Stephanie Jones initiated this catastrophic sequence of events by violating the most basic of privacy rights, as well as any remaining trust her clients held,” said Bryan Freedman, Wayfarer’s lawyer, in a statement. “No stranger to stirring up crisis scenarios for departing clients, Ms. Jones maliciously turned over communications from the phone she wrongfully took from her own partner to her cohort Leslie Sloane, immediately after Jones was terminated for cause by Wayfarer due to her own wrongful behavior.  Stephanie Jones, founder of Jonesworks, has a well-documented history of highly questionable conduct in the workplace, which the Lively parties would have seen with even the smallest amount of online research, yet they walked right into Ms. Jones’ ploy of bitter revenge against her most-trusted employee at the expense of her own long-term client We will not stop until our clients are cleared of all wrongdoing and compensated for the vast damages that they have incurred.