Justin Baldoni, along with his wife Emily Baldoni, is speaking out about the legal battle with Blake Lively.
As you likely know, the former It Ends With Us co-stars settled their case outside of court in May — nearly two years after the war began when the actress sued him for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation. A judge then ordered Justin and his company, Wayfarer Studios, to pay Blake’s legal fees due to a California law created to protect sexual harassment victims from retaliatory defamation claims. However, he rejected her demand for punitive and treble damages. She’s seeking over $8 million in legal fees, and the judge will soon determine whether to award her the entire amount, lower it, or deny portions.
Related: Where Taylor Swift & Blake Lively Friendship Stands After Wedding Snub!
With the drama coming to a close, Justin and Emily are apparently ready to start talking! In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, the couple opened up about the “injustice,” “pain,” and “trauma” they have experienced over the past two years — never once mentioning Blake or the movie by name. Justin began by saying:
“We have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say. Because lord knows we have, but it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to. It just didn’t feel like the right time, and we were talking about it and feeling into it and praying about it.”
Emily chimed in to share that “this feels like the moment,” and “there’s so much to say.” Although the pair won’t address everything in their video statement, she expressed they have “immense gratitude for … so many people and so many things that have happened to us.” And Justin stressed:
“Gratitude has saved us.”
But at the same time, Emily noted their gratitude “doesn’t negate the injustice and the pain that we have also felt in the last few years.” She continued:
“We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things, like how could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women. So much to unpack.”
Emily shared that she and Justin have “a lot of trauma” from the situation, which “makes it hard to speak.” According to Justin, they didn’t even know if they should’ve spoken publicly about this now:
“We don’t even know if this is the right thing to say. We just know we need to share something. What I will say is that there have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence over the last couple of years. That created so much noise, and we didn’t want to add to the noise. So we just wanted to let the justice system run its course.”
Emily interjected to say “untruthful” things had been spread but “the truth and the facts have spoken for themselves” in the end. Meanwhile, Blake has been calling this settlement a total win for herself…
Although the two don’t address Blake’s request for them to cover her legal fees, they did go on to share an update on how they’re doing. And right now, they are in their “healing” era. Justin explained:
“We are healing. If you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear. It looks different every day. We have had to rethink for ourselves what is real, and what matters. It’s this. It’s our family, it’s our friends, it’s our community, who have been there for us, it’s our faith. I think we’re closer and more devoted and steadfast in our faith than we’ve ever been. Also, this, and this has been on both of our hearts. There were so many of you who, when we didn’t have a voice or our voice, you had a prayer at the very beginning, which was that you just prayed that people would have discernment. And so many of you had discernment, and you used your intuition, and you trusted that. And you have given your time to fight for us, and thank you does not feel like enough. But we’re here, in large part, because of so many of you and all of our friends and family. And one thing that we’ve learned is that when God presses the reset button and everything else is stripped away, that that’s when love shows up. … And we feel so loved.”
While Emily and Justin would love to talk more about what happened, they aren’t ready yet. She concluded:
“There’s so much more to say. The time will come. But for now, we are going to focus on continuing the healing and hanging out with our kiddos and enjoying life.”
Watch Justin and Emily break their silence over the matter (below):
Oh, we bet Ms. Lively is not happy about Justin and Emily speaking out on camera about their years-long drama! The Gossip Girl alum hasn’t addressed the video at this time.
What are your reactions, Perezcious readers? Tell us in the comments!
[Image via Justin Baldoni/Instagram, MEGA/WENN]