Justin Baldoni's Former Publicist Sues Him, His Current PR & Crisis Team
Justin Baldoni‘s ex-publicist is suing him and his current representation following Blake Lively‘s lawsuit accusing her It Ends With Us co-star of sexual harassment and orchestrating an online smear campaign. (See the biggest allegations in the complaint.)
Stephanie Jones, who has represented Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, and Venus Williams, as well as Justin up until 2024, claimed ex-employee Jennifer Abel was assigned to handle Justin‘s publicity, and it was her decision to hire crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan, via legal docs obtained by TMZ.
Stephanie claims in the suit that Jennifer and Melissa‘s goal was “tearing down Jones‘ reputation to take her clients and enrich themselves upon Abel‘s planned departure from” her PR firm.
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The lawsuit includes alleged text messages between the women, in which Melissa tells Jennifer: “I know. And once you are gone — we will be on accounts together and make really good money and be happy.”
There are others discussing Jennifer leaving Stephanie‘s firm and stealing Justin as a client.
Stephanie included an alleged text from Jennifer about Justin that reads: “I can’t stand him. He’s so pompous. … you’re not that important and nobody gives a s**t how hard your life is.”
Jennifer also allegedly said Justin needed to be “humbled,” writing: “He needs to be humbled. When this movie flops, he’s going to try to blame every person around him for it.”
Stephanie claims the two women worked media contacts to plant negative stories about her and her PR firm, including the article “Who’s Afraid of Stephanie Jones?”
According to the suit, Stephanie discovered Jennifer‘s plot to leave in August because she allegedly downloaded confidential company documents, and fired her. Stephanie seemingly found all these text messages from Jennifer‘s devices after she was fired, via TMZ.
Stephanie is suing Justin, Jennifer, Melissa and Justin‘s company, Wayfarer Studios, for defamation, breach of contract and more, and is asking for unspecified damages that her company has allegedly incurred as a result.
Justin‘s lawyer issued a new statement regarding leaked texts in Blake‘s complaint.