So, ‘Those It Ends With Us’ Depositions Sound…Bad

For starters, Justin Baldoni showed up to Blake Lively's interview despite not being legally required to do so. Among the other alleged perpetrators who've been present for their accuser's depositions is Marilyn Manson and Johnny Depp...just saying.

By Audra Heinrichs | August 5, 2025 | 4:19pm

Photo Credit: Getty Images Celebrities News

So, ‘Those It Ends With Us’ Depositions Sound…Bad

Last week, both Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni sat for depositions in the It Ends With Us legal battle royale. And because no development in this ongoing case has arrived without contention, a new back-and-forth over said depositions is now making headlines.

On Monday, Lively’s team filed a motion for sanctions against Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan J. Freedman. In it, the lawyers claim that Freedman and his clients have made a habit of leaking “biased and inflammatory pre-trial indictments of Ms. Lively’s character, credibility, and reputation” and “publicly slandering” the actress. The most recent example of such was, of course, last week’s depositions.

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While Baldoni wasn’t “legally required” to attend Lively’s deposition, he (and all of the other defendants listed in Lively’s lawsuit) showed up anyway. According to reports, Baldoni “demanded” that he be present. A purported “insider” told Rob Shuter’s #ShuterScoop Substack that Baldoni insisted: “He said, ‘If she’s going to accuse me, she’s going to have to say it to my face.’” In the days that followed, details of the deposition appeared in tabloids like the Daily Mail and TMZ–most notably that Baldoni was present and that Lively attended the deposition with a group of people that included her older sister, Robyn Lively, husband Ryan Reynolds, and eight attorneys.

“Consistent with their goal of creating a media circus around Ms. Lively’s deposition, it also appears that the Wayfarer Defendants immediately leaked details from the deposition to the tabloid media,” Lively’s attorney Esra Hudson wrote in a three-page letter to Judge Lewis J. Liman. “The narrative created was that Ms. Lively needed a large contingent of people with her to testify, while misleadingly suggesting that only Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Freedman were present for the deposition on their side.”

Further, Hudson added: “The reality is that Ms. Lively testified across the table from Mr. Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel, all of whom attended this deposition in person, as well as eight attorneys representing the Wayfarer and Wallace Parties, two of whom questioned her.” Among the other details from the deposition reported in the tabloids were what Lively wore, what time the deposition began, confirmation of Reynolds’ presence, and how her team acted.

One day after Lively’s deposition, Baldoni’s team filed a motion in a discovery dispute, which just so happened to include a sealed copy of the transcript of Lively’s interview. In response, Lively’s team alleged that Baldoni’s attorneys were either trying to force it into the public record, or prompt them to demand that it remain under seal given most depositions are typically kept confidential. Either result, Lively’s attorneys claim, would prove a shrewd PR move for Baldoni.

As of now, Freedman, nor Judge Liman, have yet to comment on Lively’s latest filing. Meanwhile, many online have already noted that alleged perpetrators showing up to their accuser’s depositions is a disturbing trend that’s previously been followed by Marilyn Manson and Johnny Depp. But frankly, that point can’t be made enough.

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