Blake Lively’s claims of being ‘fat shamed’ by Justin Baldoni are under renewed examination following the emergence of an audio clip that sheds new light on the situation. In the recording, Lively, just weeks after welcoming her fourth child, expressed a desire to delay filming so she could be in ‘her best shape’ postpartum. This audio, obtained by the Daily Mail from court documents in New York, captures a conversation between Lively and Baldoni, her director and co-star for the upcoming 2024 film, “It Ends with Us.”

During the February 2023 discussion, Lively candidly shared her concerns about resuming work so soon after childbirth, emphasizing her wish to ‘work out every day.’ This revelation comes as Baldoni seeks to have Lively’s substantial $160 million lawsuit dismissed ahead of a May trial. The audio appears to challenge one of Lively’s most significant accusations—that Baldoni made disparaging remarks about her weight post-pregnancy.

Central to Lively’s legal complaint is an allegation that Baldoni queried her personal trainer, Dan Saladino, about her weight, information that Saladino promptly relayed to Lively. The newly surfaced audio, however, may complicate this aspect of her lawsuit, prompting fresh scrutiny as both sides prepare for the courtroom battle ahead.

The audio, released as part of Baldoni’s bid to have Lively’s $160million lawsuit dismissed before the case goes to trial in May, appears to undermine one of her most explosive claims – that she was humiliated after Baldoni allegedly made comments about her weight shortly after she gave birth. 

Lively alleged in her lawsuit that Baldoni had asked her personal trainer about her weight, a comment the trainer, Dan Saladino, instantly relayed to her. 

According to Lively, this was insensitive given that she had so recently given birth.

Blake Lively’s explosive claim that she was ‘fat-shamed’ by her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni has been thrown into doubt by a newly released audio

The actress claims to have suffered more than $160million in damages after claiming he sexually harassed her on the set and retaliated against her with a smear campaign

The Gossip Girl star maintains Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us and retaliated against her with a smear campaign.

Baldoni denies all the claims but a judge dismissed the actor’s own $400million defamation countersuit last year. 

Saladino said in a deposition that he was taken aback when Baldoni asked him about Lively’s weight, supposedly because he was worried about not being able to lift her up during a dance scene.

In his deposition, Saladino said this made him feel ‘uncomfortable’ and so he told Lively. Baldoni claims he had back problems and only wanted to be safe during filming.

Lively’s audio message was sent to Baldoni on February 8, 2023, three months before shooting eventually began.

The ‘fat shaming’ allegation was perhaps one of Lively’s most explosive claims in the suit and centered on comments Baldoni made to her longtime personal trainer Don Saladino

Lively expressed feeling anxious about returning to work weeks after giving birth to her fourth child 

In the rambling, four-and-a-half minute long message, Lively said she had been speaking to the director of Proxy, the sci-fi film she was due to make before It Ends With Us because there was ‘very little time to prep’.

Lively told Baldoni that the Proxy director asked if the start date of It Ends With Us could be pushed back but she said no.

She said: ‘I’ve been really, really under it. I don’t talk to him (the other director) like I talk to you, so I haven’t told him about about not having a baby nurse – still don’t have one by the way.

‘The idea of going back to work right away. The idea of wanting to work out every day and yet being on set every day. Like what have I done?’

A gap of just a week between filming Proxy and It Ends With Us was ‘a lot’, Lively told Baldoni, because she ‘really wanted to focus on our movie’.

Texts also revealed Baldoni offered words of reassurance to Blake and urged her ‘not to stress about her body’ and assured her she would ‘look amazing’

‘Shooting in April, March is too soon after having a baby and not sleeping and wanting to be in my best shape and all that,’ she said.

Lively added that she and Ryan Reynolds had been ‘really stressed’ about spending all of June apart.

She said that the most they had ever been apart was less than two weeks and that they wanted to be with their children during the summer holidays.

In the end she did not work on Proxy. 

The alleged ‘fat shaming’ particularly angered Reynolds who let rip during a January 2024 meeting at the house he shares with Lively, according to legal filings.

Baldoni had claimed Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds was ‘enraged’ about the alleged fat shaming and demanded an apology

The movie follows Lily Bloom, a florist played by Lively, who falls in love with a charming but abusive neurosurgeon played by Baldoni, who was also the film’s director

According to Baldoni, Reynolds was ‘enraged’ during the ‘traumatic encounter’ as the Deadpool star demanded an apology.

When Baldoni ‘resisted apologizing for what he had not done, Reynolds became further enraged’, court documents state.

Baldoni’s lawyers have said that he had ‘never been spoken to like that in his life’.

In her complaint Lively claimed that Baldoni ‘routinely degraded’ her by finding ‘back channel ways of criticizing her body and weight’.

She was left feeling ‘humiliated’ after her personal trainer told her about Baldoni’s comments, which allegedly included him wanting her to ‘lose weight in two weeks’.

The complaint states: ‘Mr Baldoni told the trainer that he had asked because he was concerned about having to pick Ms Lively up in a scene for the movie, but there was no such scene.’

The newly released filings also lift the lid on Baldoni’s private mindset as the controversy engulfed him.

They include a long text conversation between Baldoni and the PR team he hired in 2024 to manage the crisis enveloping him and the movie.

In messages to Jennifer Abel, who worked at the time for Baldoni’s PR firm, he mocked Sony, the film’s distributor.

Baldoni said: ‘Hi I’m Sony and I’m going to cozy up to Ryan (Reynolds) and erase Justin…Sony has no spine’.

Abel insisted that comments on social media were ‘real people’ and ‘no bots’ were involved in the Internet criticism of Lively.

In a text from July 2024 Baldoni revealed a text sent to him by Isabela Ferrer, who plays a young version of Lively’s character, Lily Bloom.

Ferrer told Baldoni it was ‘such a comfortable safe space’ on set.

Baldoni wrote: ‘Now she won’t even say my name’.

In a deposition filed last week, Ferrer said that she was shocked that Baldoni said a sex scene where her character loses her virginity was ‘hot’ because she was supposed to be around 16 at the time.

In the texts Baldoni talked about getting a ‘ton of fun bro texts’ from Brandon Sklenar who plays a Atlas Corrigan, Lily Bloom’s love interest.

Baldoni wrote the pair had a ‘bromance for a year and then nothing’.

Days later Baldoni claimed that Reynolds had unblocked him and his wife Emily on social media but only so he could ‘spy’ on them.

The Daily Mail also previously revealed raw footage that refuted Lively’s claim that Baldoni had ‘suggestively’ told her that her neck smelled ‘so good’ during a scene where they dance together

Also included in the new documents was raw video from the shooting which Baldoni’s lawyers said refuted Lively’s claim that he ‘suggestively’ told her that her neck smelled ‘so good’ during a scene where they dance together.

The footage was previously reported by the Daily Mail last July in an exclusive clip.

It shows Baldoni joking about rubbing his beard on Lively, who laughs at the remark.

Lively says: ‘I’m probably getting my spray tan on you.’

Baldoni replies: ‘It smells good.’

Lively appears not to take the comment well and tells Baldoni: ‘Well it’s not that, it’s my body makeup.’

According to Lively, Baldoni ‘nuzzled’ her neck without her consent during the filming of the scene in an improvised moment that wasn’t in the script.