Voice memos between friends can be fun, but you wouldn’t expect them to be all over the internet two years later. The Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni lawsuit followed us into 2026, and it’s been non-stop drama as private conversations continue to be unsealed.
On Thursday, PEOPLE published a newly unsealed voice memo offering a look at the early working relationship between Lively and her It Ends With Us director and co-star.
The over four-minute memoir was sent by Lively on February 8, 2023, just weeks before production began. Lively sounds overwhelmed and stressed as she prepared to return to work shortly after having a baby, while juggling multiple projects.
The memo has resurfaced amid Lively’s December 2024 lawsuit, in which she alleges sexual harassment and retaliation. Baldoni has denied the allegations.
“Hey, I hope you’re so well,” Lively begins, before quickly flagging the sensitivity of what she’s about to share. “Just wanted to connect uh, just to put something on your radar. Um, so between us like this is so uh premature for me to even share this with you.” She reassures him repeatedly that it’s “all good, all good stuff,” while admitting she wasn’t sure she should even send the message.
Lively explains that she talked it over with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, who encouraged her to be honest. “I was like, I don’t know if I should share this,” she says. “But he was like, you guys have such a great trust. You know, fill him in.”
From there, she details how overwhelmed she feels heading back to work so soon after giving birth. “I’ve been, you know, really, really under it,” she admits. “I don’t talk to him like I talk to you. So I haven’t told him, like, how stressed I’ve been.” She adds bluntly, “Still don’t have a baby nurse. Still don’t have one, by the way.”
© Jose Perez/Bauer-GriffinShe describes the mental spiral of trying to prepare while running on little sleep and still wanting to get in better shape. “Just the idea of going back to work right away… and also the idea of like, you know, prepping for our movie and like wanting to work out every day and all that, but yet being on set all day every day—I’m like, what have I done?”
At one point, Lively admits she’s panicking as production gets closer. “The closer the reality gets, the more I’m just panicking about that,” she says. “Because I’d really like to just focus on our movie.” That leads her to float what she openly calls “a crazy idea.”
“What if um, what if we went in September?” she asks, explaining that shooting in March or April felt impossible. “Shooting in April, shooting in March is just too soon after having a baby and not sleeping and wanting to be in my best shape and all that.”
Throughout the memo, Lively emphasizes that she knows the schedule isn’t hers to change and repeatedly acknowledges her own “selfish reasons” for bringing it up. “I know that our schedules are scheduled. I’m not trying to move anything,” she says. “But like if by chance you’re like, ‘Oh my god, if I could go two weeks earlier, that would actually be great,’ then amazing.”
© James DevaneyShe also opens up about the emotional toll of time away from her family. “Ryan and I have also been really stressed about spending a month apart,” she says. “The most we’ve ever done is less than two weeks.” She explains that the timing would affect their plans to travel with their kids once school lets out, calling the situation “just a lot.”
Near the end of the message, Lively acknowledges the length of the memo, “I told you in four minutes what I could have told you in 30 seconds,” she says, before asking Baldoni, “Please again keep this between us.”
She signed off, acknowledging the length of the message, “This is so sad. This is my social interaction these days: talking into voice memos.” “I hope you’re well. Send my love to your family who don’t know me,” Lively concludes.
The trial between Lively and Baldoni has a new start date set for May 18, 2026.
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