Friends and Family Publicly Back Blake Lively Amid Co-Star’s Alleged Smear Campaign

Blake Lively’s friends and family members have come out of the woodwork to offer words of support after she filed a lawsuit accusing Justin Baldoni, the director and co-star of her upcoming film It Ends With Us, of sexual harassment and plotting a smear campaign against the former Gossip Girl star.

Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, and Alexis Bledel, Lively’s co-stars from the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, issued a statement in support on Sunday night, praising her for speaking out against Baldoni.

“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” Tamblyn, Ferrera, and Bledel wrote in a joint statement posted on Instagram. “Throughout the filming of ‘It Ends with Us,’ we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice. Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors’ stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.”

Lively’s lawsuit accused Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath of sexually harassing her on the set of the film, which got so bad she was forced to call an all-hands meeting with the cast and crew.

The suit also accuses Baldoni of hiring a crisis PR firm to wage a “multi-tiered plan that Mr. Baldoni and his team described as ‘social manipulation’ designed to ‘destroy’ Ms. Lively’s reputation”—which allegedly included plans to manipulate the discussion of Lively on social media and “astroturfing” a campaign to portray the actress as a bully.

Other members of Lively’s family have begun speaking out in support of the actress. Robyn Lively, the It Ends With Us star’s older sister, also offered words of support on Instagram, writing, ”FINALLY justice for my sister” and linking to The New York Times’ coverage of the story.

Colleen Hoover, the wildly popular romance novelist who wrote the book the film adapts, also spoke out in support of Lively. “You have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,” Hoover wrote in her own Instagram story.

An attorney for Baldoni called the claims in the lawsuit “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media” in a statement sent to the Associated Press. Baldoni has since been dropped by his agent at WME.

It Ends With Us debuted in August, earning $50 million at the box office on its opening weekend but only receiving mixed reviews from critics. It has since rocketed back to the top of Netflix’s top 10 since Lively’s lawsuit was filed.