Amid his expansive and ongoing legal battle with Blake Lively, “It Ends With Us” director and star Justin Baldoni has filed a counterclaim against his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, alleging that she “maliciously” leaked his private texts.
Jones filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, his Wayfarer Studios, former Jonesworks publicist and RWA Communications founder Jennifer Abel and crisis PR rep Melissa Nathan in December, alleging that the group had worked together to undermine and publicly smear her reputation. On Thursdsay, Baldoni responded with a counterclaim filed in the Southern District Court of New York.
In the claim, Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios accuses Jones, the founder and CEO of PR firm Jonesworks, of “despicable and surreptitious” actions that went on to “stir up unnecessary drama and discord … and generally [caused] more problems than she was solving.”