Justin Baldoni’s publicist quit PR firm over founder ‘bullying’ as timeline is unclear amid Blake Lively lawsuit

Justin Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel has reportedly quit working for her former employer due to “bullying” during the alleged smear campaign against Blake Lively last summer.

This comes a day after Baldoni’s ex-publicist sued his current publicist, Abel, in a new turn of events surrounding the It Ends With Us drama.

Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios and his crisis manager Melissa Nathan, in addition to Abel, are all named as defendants in the lawsuit for defamation and breach of contract.

At the same time, Baldoni is also facing a legal battle against Lively after his former It Ends With Us co-star sued him last week for sexual harassment and mounting a smear campaign against her.

This was said by a source close to Baldoni’s publicist Abel The cover that she alleged “bullying” was going on at Stephanie Jones’ PR firm Jonesworks, where Abel was once a partner and the same one who previously represented the actor.

In the summer, Abel left Baldoni’s ex-publicist agency Jonesworks and founded her own company RWA Communications.

Subsequently, Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios left Jonesworks to join Abel at her new company.

One interesting thing to note is the conflicting timelines of when Abel would have quit, as TheWrap reports that she voluntarily resigned from Jonesworks on July 10 and set her departure date for August 23, but was fired on August 21.

However, a previous one Variety According to the report, Abel was fired by Jonesworks on August 21, just days after It Ends With Us was released.

On Tuesday, less than a week after Lively sued Baldoni, Jones filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Abel and the rest of the crisis management team behind the alleged Lively smear campaign.

Jones claimed she fired Abel after discovering she stole documents from her company as she prepared to start her own business.

Abel allegedly “took documents and customer information with her, while also secretly contacting Jonesworks customers to pave the way for her departure.”

Jones and her agency are suing Abel for breach of contract, claiming she violated her terms of employment and conspired to steal her clients, and also accusing her of defamation.

According to legal documents obtained by The New York TimesJones claimed she was barred from representing Baldoni and that Abel had poached her clients.

When she discovered what Abel was secretly doing, she terminated her employment at Jonesworks.

Abel then voluntarily returned her work phone to Jonesworks “in the presence of an employment lawyer.”

It was from that same device where the incriminating messages and emails sent between Baldoni and his team and included in Lively’s complaint were “forensically extracted directly from that company phone” and “preserved in their original state.”

However, Abel now claims she was not fired; she previously voluntarily resigned on July 10, according to the insider’s statement to The Wrap.

She reportedly quit due to ‘bullying’ from Jones.

The targeted behavior was reportedly directed at another colleague, Matthew Mitchell – Abel’s partner on accounts for Baldoni, the actor’s production company Wayfarer Studios, and the “majority of other clients she also references in her texts.”

The source explained that Abel’s last day was set for August 23, two weeks after It Ends With Us was released.

Although Abel initially resigned on July 10, Jones reportedly fired her on August 21 after learning of her alleged attempts to poach clients.

The insider close to Abel claimed: “Jennifer submitted her resignation in July and had agreed to stay until August 23rd. She was fired early after Jonesworks discovered she had stolen more than 70 documents.

The individual also alleged that the defamation lawsuit against Abel was “retaliatory conduct” because Baldoni and Wayfarer left Jonesworks for Abel’s new company.

“They were not ‘stolen’, and neither were other customers.”

The insider also claimed that the other clients who left to join Abel’s firm were clients she already had a working relationship with before joining Jonesworks.

Among them was a client who Abel “personally signed while working at Jonesworks and who had no relationship with Stephanie Jones,” the insider said.

In email correspondence obtained by The Wrap that appears to be Abel’s resignation letter to Jones, the former Jonesworks partner described an atmosphere in which “things continue to escalate between the two of us” and that she “constantly felt like I was putting you in the failed. ‘

Abel wrote to Jones: “I take full responsibility for my part in all of this. I’m not proud of how emotional I get in these situations, or how I choose to distance myself when I feel like we’re not making progress in our conversations.”

“I know I also have things to work on with my communication, and this whole situation has been a good learning opportunity for me on the ways I need to improve how I get my point across.”

Abel’s resignation letter, which was dated about a month before the theatrical release of It Ends With Us, does not specify the problems between them.

However, the timing coincides with a period of escalating tensions between Baldoni and Lively, as the public began to turn against the actress.

This suggests that the alleged smear campaign may have played a role in those conflicts.

Earlier this year, fans started wondering what was going on behind the scenes between the It Ends With Us castmates — specifically lead actor Lively and her co-star-slash-director Baldoni.

While promoting the film, which follows the story of a traumatic love story and intimate partner violence, rumors of an alleged feud began circulating online.

Months after the icy promo tour and a seemingly contrived, negative media blitz – and just before Christmas – Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni.

In her lengthy legal complaint, she accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign intended to “destroy” her reputation to discredit her if she made public his on-set misconduct.

An expose by The New York Times described his alleged inappropriate behavior during the production of their film and his retaliation against her.

Baldoni has denied all allegations.