Blake Lively Allegedly Objects to Justin Baldoni’s Attorney Deposition

Blake Lively allegedly does not want to be deposed by Justin Baldoni‘s attorney, Bryan Freedman.

According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, attorney Kevin Fritz — who represents Baldoni, 41, and his studio Wayfarer — wrote to the judge on Thursday, January 30. In the letter, Fritz claimed that Lively, 37, and her husband Ryan Reynolds objected to Freedman conducting her testimony.

“Specifically, the Lively Parties’ counsel indicated that they object to Bryan J. Freedman, personally, taking Ms. Lively’s deposition, based upon unspecified statements made by Mr. Freedman,” the filing read. “When asked to elaborate on the grounds for their objection, counsel for the Lively Parties declined to do so.”

According to Fritz, Lively’s attorney made it “clear” that the actress does not want to conduct the session with Freedman. However, Fritz and his team argued that Lively should not have a say in who handles the deposition.

“We are unaware of any situation that would warrant the deposed party to have a choice in which attorney takes her deposition,” the filing continued. “Parties to litigation simply do not have the right to dictate which of their opponents’ attorneys may or may not take their deposition or perform any other aspect of the opposing party’s case.”

Fritz stated that since neither Lively’s nor Baldoni’s lawyers can agree on the matter they are requesting the court to weigh in at their upcoming conference scheduled for Monday, February 3.

This isn’t the only development in the ongoing legal drama between Baldoni and Lively. On Thursday, Lively and Reynolds, 48, told a federal judge that they are seeking to dismiss Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit, filed that same day.

Lively and Baldoni starred in It Ends With Us, which premiered in August 2024. Rumors swirled at the time of tension between the pair after they did not promote the movie together.

Four months later, Lively sued Baldoni, who also directed the film, for sexual harassment and accused him of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation.

Baldoni denied all allegations made against him in the lawsuit. The actor subsequently took legal action against The New York Times for its coverage of Lively’s accusations. A spokesperson for The New York Times told Us that the outlet is planning to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”

Baldoni then sued Lively, Reynolds and Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloan. In the $400 million lawsuit, he accused the group of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and more.

Earlier this month, Freedman released unseen footage from the set of It Ends With Us — a scene mentioned in both Lively Baldoni’s lawsuits. In addition to making the clip available to the public, Baldoni’s legal team also said they were putting together a website that would allegedly support the director’s claims against Lively. Lively, for her part, slammed Baldoni and his team for their decision to publicly share the video via her legal team.

“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to Us on January 21. “This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public. It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign. While they are focused on misleading media narratives, we are focused on the legal process. We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts.”

Us later confirmed that Lively and Reynolds filed a letter in court seeking a protective order to stop Freedman from engaging in “improper conduct,” including an alleged “harassing and retaliatory media campaign” against the couple.