Private text messages obtained by Page Six have revealed the full extent of Ryan Reynolds’ desperation to protect his wife Blake Lively during the height of the public backlash she faced while promoting It Ends With Us in August 2024, and the lengths he went to try to force Sony Pictures to act on her behalf.
The messages, contained in court documents filed in November 2025 and obtained on Friday, October 9, 2026, show Reynolds, 49, texting talent agent Warren Zavala on August 17, 2024, as his wife was being publicly slammed for her tone-deaf promotion of the domestic violence film.
Blake Lively had infamously asked fans to grab your friends, wear your florals to see the movie, and was simultaneously promoting her haircare brand and beverage line throughout the press tour.
Reynolds was furious that Sony was not publicly standing behind her.
“They need to frame it the right way! This isn’t hard,” he wrote. “They just need to go f**king straight at this.”
He went further, pushing for Sony to characterise the mounting negative press as part of a systematic and coordinated campaign by a crisis p.r. team, referring to the team working for director and co-star Justin Baldoni, whom Blake Lively later formally accused of sexual harassment and running a deliberate smear operation against her.
Reynolds even drafted his own statement for Sony to release, but they never used it.
“This needs to be addressed immediately. This is the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen in this business,” he wrote.
“Sony needs to step up for real. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
He called Sony’s inaction unforgivable and accused them of leaving Blake Lively out to dry, while Baldoni’s team operated with ZERO repercussions.
A week earlier, on August 9, Ryan Reynolds had already vented to Zavala about his wife not sleeping and missing countless moments with her kids to make the film, only to be met with online attacks.
“They should be protecting B,” he said. “They made a big f**king mess.”
A source close to Reynolds told Page Six that his actions were entirely in response to Baldoni’s crisis PR team, the same team that has since been accused of similar smear tactics in at least five other lawsuits, according to the New York Times.
Sony eventually released a statement in December 2024, backing Blake Lively and strongly condemning reputational attacks against her.
Blake Lively and Justine Baldoni later settled their legal battle two weeks before a scheduled May 2026 trial.
Neither party received any money, and Lively subsequently sought over $8 million in legal fees and costs from Baldoni but was awarded only $400,000 in August.
