Justin Baldoni heard apologizing to Blake Lively in ‘It Ends With Us’ audio message: ‘I am far from perfect’

Justin Baldoni is heard apologizing to his co-star Blake Lively in an audio message sent to Lively amid production of their film “It Ends with Us,” long before the two stars launched into a legal battle that continues to play out in the public eye.

In a nearly seven-minute voice note first published by TMZ on Monday, Baldoni, who also directed the film, is heard discussing some script changes Lively, who was a producer, presented to him.

Lively and Baldoni starred as the central couple in “It Ends With Us,” which explores themes of intimate partner violence based on characters from Colleen Hoover’s hit 2016 novel of the same name.

“I want to start with an apology. Man, reading the second part of your message, my heart sank and I’m sorry. I, for sure, fell short and you worked hard on that,” Baldoni said in the voice note.

“I feel grateful that you feel safe enough to tell me that that’s how you feel and share that with me. And I’m sorry. I f***ed up. That is a failure on my part.”

Baldoni continued: “I am far from perfect. I’m a very flawed man, as my wife will attest….but I will always apologize and then find my way back to the centre.

That is one thing I can assure you of. And I’m sorry I made you feel that way, that must have felt terrible.”

CNN has not been able to independently verify the voice memo’s authenticity, but Baldoni mentions at one point that his message is being sent at 2 a.m.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Lively and Baldoni for comment.

Baldoni and Lively have been in a legal battle that began in December, when Lively accused him of sexual harassment and retaliation in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights Department, preceding a lawsuit that followed about a week later.

Baldoni, meanwhile, has sued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, alleging that the Hollywood couple attempted to “destroy” him after Lively accused him of harassment during the production of the film, which he has denied.

A trial date has been set in New York for March 9, 2026, according to the Associated Press.

Baldoni’s lawsuit claims that Lively sought to take over much of the film’s creative direction, including having Reynolds re-write a scene and make “unauthorized changes to the script in secret.”

(Reynolds had no formal role in “It Ends With Us.”)

The suit claims that Lively “summoned” Baldoni to the penthouse she shares with Reynolds in New York City for a meeting about the script, where Reynolds, along with a “megacelebrity friend” of the couple, praised Lively’s proposed revisions to the script.

“As the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script,” the lawsuit states.

“Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”

One of the text messages included in Baldoni’s suit appears to show an exchange between Baldoni and Lively about the script: “I love what you did.

It does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting.

(And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” he wrote with a wink emoji. “You are a talent across the board. Excited and grateful to do this together.”

While Baldoni’s text message does not include a last name for “Taylor,” Lively is close friends with the artist Taylor Swift.

CNN previously reached out to representatives for Baldoni, Lively, Reynolds and Taylor Swift to inquire whether the “Taylor” mentioned in Baldoni’s text is, in fact, Swift.

In one of Lively’s text messages in Baldoni’s suit, the actress refers to her friends, stating, “If you ever get around to watching ‘Game of Thrones,’ you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons.”

CNN has also not independently verified the text messages included in either Baldoni or Lively’s lawsuits.

It is not clear at what point in the discussions about the script changes Baldoni’s voicemail was sent, but he adds at one point, “damn, right, you’ve got great friends.”

“If that’s how you felt and they knew that, and f**k, we should all have friends like that, aside from the fact that they’re two of the most creative people on the planet.

The three of you guys together are unbelievable. Talk about energy and just to force, all three of you,” he said.

“But I just wanted you to know that I didn’t need that, because it’s really good and it’s gonna make the movie sing like you said, and and I’m excited to go through the whole movie with you.

I’m just excited to spend time with you.”

Last week, Baldoni’s legal team released about 10 minutes of footage from the set of “It Ends With Us” they said supports his claim he acted with “respect and professionalism” toward Lively during the project.

The two costars are seen filming a slow dance referenced in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni, in which she cited instances of what she characterized as inappropriate behaviour by him.

In response, a representative for Lively said “Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint.”

Baldoni has also sued the New York Times for $250 million, accusing the newspaper of working alongside Lively’s team to publish a one-sided article that benefited Lively and contained doctored evidence.

The New York Times has denied Baldoni’s allegations and said it stands by its reporting.