Blake Lively is demanding It Ends With Us producer Jamey Heath hand over more footage of his ‘naked’ wife giving birth to their child, in a bizarre twist to her sexual harassment lawsuit, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.
The Gossip Girl star, 38, filed a motion on October 30, accusing Heath of ‘failing to comply’ with an August 27 court order requiring him to produce the full, now-infamous video of his wife Natasha’s home-birth by September 2.
Blake accused Heath of showing her and an assistant his wife’s ‘fully nude’ home-birthing video, which she described as ‘pornography,’ but that the producer and director Justin Baldoni intended to show her their vision of the film’s birthing scene.
In her redacted motioned filed with the Southern District court of New York, Lively says Heath – who worked alongside the film’s director and co-star Justin Baldoni – has only provided a three-minute clip, which she ‘has consistently disputed’ is the same ‘inappropriate’ video he showed her on the set of the movie.
She claims Heath’s lawyers ‘insisted for weeks that they were ‘not aware’ of any other video’ and that they have ‘refused to provide any further video on the sole basis that, in their view, the Order Compelling Production should be read exceedingly narrowly and does not require Mr Heath to produce it’.
But in a blistering volley, Lively’s legal team says Heath ‘put this video at issue by showing it to Ms Lively without her consent or any warning in the workplace’.
Blake Lively is demanding a judge force Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath turn over the full graphic video of his wife’s home-birth, according to new filings
Lively claims Heath, who worked alongside It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni, has only provided a three-minute clip – and insists it is not the footage she was shown on set
They also insist it is ‘plainly improper’ for Heath to argue that Lively and the court ‘must accept his word that the small excerpt…is the same video he showed her on set’.
Lively argued that by ‘knowingly and willfully withholding’ the full video, she has been ‘deprived’ of the chance to fully question Heath on it during his deposition on October 8.
She demanded the judge force Heath to hand over every version of the home-birthing video within three days of the court’s order and to ban him from discussing it at trial if he refuses.
Lively launched a bombshell lawsuit against Baldoni, 41, his production company Wayfarer Studios, and others last December, alleging sexual harassment, retaliatory conduct, and intentional infliction of emotional stress during filming of the movie based on the Colleen Hoover novel.
Heath, the movie’s producer and Wayfarer Studios’ chief executive, was among several Baldoni collaborators named in Lively’s December 20 complaint.
In the now-dismissed Wayfarer Studios complaint, Baldoni and Heath said Lively had ‘continued with an outrageous and knowingly false suggestion that she was shown pornography or naked images of Heath’s wife on set’.
Lively’s character Lily Bloom gives birth to a baby girl in the film
Wayfarer’s countersuit claimed that the director and producer attempted to show Lively Heath’s wife’s birthing video to demonstrate the vision for the scene
They said her claim ‘knowingly and maliciously misrepresents an instance when in connection with the birthing scene, Heath, at the director’s request, attempted to show Lively a video that demonstrated the director’s vision for the scene.’
It went on that the video ‘which ultimately was not shown to Lively…is by all accounts beautiful’.
They insisted that although Lively had said she wanted to see the footage after she had eaten, what she was shown was ‘the first image at the start of the video, which shows Heath’s wife, himself, and their baby after his wife gave birth at home’.
‘To characterize this image that captures such a beautiful moment with their newborn baby, shared with the consent of his wife for purposes of the Film, as a naked photo, or worse, “porn,” is deplorable,’ the complaint added.
Lively claimed Heath approached them and ‘started playing a video of a fully nude woman with her legs spread apart.
‘Ms Lively thought he was showing her pornography and stopped him. Mr Heath explained that the video was his wife giving birth,’ the complaint states.
It Ends with Us, directed by Baldoni, was a surprise hit when it arrived in theaters in 2024
It earned $148 million at the domestic box office and $350 million globally – but whatever goodwill the film garnered has since been overshadowed by the allegations made by its stars
‘Ms Lively was alarmed and asked Mr Heath if his wife knew he was sharing the video, to which he replied, “She isn’t weird about this stuff”, as if Ms Lively was weird for not welcoming it.
‘Ms Lively and her assistant excused themselves, stunned that Mr Heath had shown them a nude video.’
Her lawyers pointed out that in Baldoni’s now-dismissed counter-suit, the Wayfarer defendants said Heath showed Lively the video of his child’s home birth at Baldoni’s direction it demonstrated his ‘vision’ for the birthing scene Lively’s character Lily Bloom features in at the end of the movie.
Baldoni’s team is said to have insisted the full birthing video was ‘beautiful’ and hit back at her ‘outrageous and knowingly false suggestion that she was shown pornography or naked images of Heath’s wife on set’.
Heath is the chief executive of Wayfarer Studios, a production company co-founded by Baldoni, his close friend.
In the legal saga between the former co-stars, Baldoni, who denies Lively’s allegations, fired back against her sexual harassment suit with his own defamation complaint against her, her actor husband Ryan Reynolds and her publicist Leslie Sloane.
Baldoni had brought his own suit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds
He launched a $400million suit against the New York Times, accusing the paper of defaming him with its bombshell expose reporting Lively’s claims of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us – which he denies.
His counterattack was subsequently dismissed in June – leaving Baldoni to face Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit as the only case still standing.
It comes as his claims against Lively, Reynolds and The Times have seemingly been thrown out by the judge, according to new court papers reported by the Daily Mail last week.
The filings obtained by the Daily Mail show a final judgment has been entered, apparently concluding the Baldoni’s lawsuits against the three parties in the district court.
The 41-year-old actor and director had been given a window to respond after a judge dismissed his case in June but he did not file an amended complaint by the deadline.
US District Court Judge Lewis Liman revealed in court on Friday that he had ‘contacted all parties on October 17 to warn them that he’d be entering a final judgment to conclude the case’.
It Ends With Us earned $148million at the domestic box office, and $350million globally – but whatever goodwill the film garnered has since been overshadowed by the allegations made by its stars.
The motion picture, which also starred Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar and Kevin McKidd, was based on the 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover.
The storyline of the film centered around a toxic relationship between Lily Bloom (played by Lively) and Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni).
The Daily Mail has reached out to Lively’s lawyers for comment.
