Celebrity couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, along with their pal Hugh Jackman, opt to be absent from the 2025 Golden Globes amid a maelstrom of the couple's personal and legal drama with Justin Baldoni.
- January 5, 2025
AceShowbiz - Blake Lively, 37, is skipping the 2025 Golden Globes amidst an ongoing legal battle with her "It Ends With Us" costar and director, Justin Baldoni. Sources revealed that Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, and his "Deadpool & Wolverine" co-star, Hugh Jackman, will not be attending the Golden Globes either this Sunday, January 5.
Reports claimed that the trio's decision to skip the event was made long before Lively's legal controversy with Baldoni became public.
Lively's legal battle against Baldoni involves accusations of harassment and "hostile work environment" on the set of "It Ends With Us", a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel. Baldoni and his associates have vehemently denied these allegations.
Lively filed her complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, claiming that Baldoni orchestrated a smear campaign against her. In retaliation, Baldoni has filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times, accusing the newspaper of libel and false light invasion of privacy for running "cherry-picked" information in Lively's story.
"We plan to release every single text message between the two of them. We want the truth to be out there," Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told NBC News.
On the same day, Lively formally launched her own lawsuit against Baldoni and his publicist, citing "severe emotional distress."
Despite the gravity of the lawsuit and its impact on the public, sources have stressed that the actors' absences from the Golden Globes are unrelated to the scandal.
Meanwhile, Golden Globes host, comedian Nikki Glaser, has stated that she will not make jokes or mention the legal clash during the ceremony. "I think the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni thing is such a hot-button thing right now that even a mere mention of it will seem like I could be on the wrong side of things," Glaser told Yahoo! Entertainment.
As the 82nd annual Golden Globes gears up for its live telecast on January 5 at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+, it remains to be seen how the event will unfold amidst the peripheral drama. Until then, audiences can only speculate on how the absence of these beloved celebrities will affect the atmosphere of the iconic awards show.
