The Good Place alum Jameela Jamil is explaining her recently unsealed text messages.
“I am ready to say some things, mostly to clarify timing ‘cause timing is key for context,
Jamil, 39, said in a Friday, January 23, video shared via TikTok. “I think it’s really weird that my private text messages from 18 months ago have suddenly been released now.”
She continued, “My name has deliberately been unredacted to cause as much trouble as possible for me even though these text messages have nothing to do with the case.”
Us Weekly confirmed earlier this month that texts between Jamil and Jennifer Abel, Justin Baldoni’s publicist, were released amid the It Ends With Us director’s legal battle with Blake Lively. (Lively, 38, accused Baldoni, 41, of harassment and trying to destroy her reputation on the set of 2024’s It Ends With Us. He vehemently denied the allegations.)
“I want to officially incorporate nightmare c*** and demon c*** into my vocabulary; UNBELIEVABLE; She’s doing this to herself,’” Abel allegedly wrote about Lively to Jamil in texts obtained by Us.
Jamil, for her part, replied, “She’s a suicide bomber at this point.” She later accused Lively of putting on a “bizarre villain” act in a separate message.
In her Friday video, Jamil stressed that she didn’t “talk about the case” in any of her text messages.
“Check the dates. They were [sent in] August 2024. The lawsuit wasn’t filed until December 2024. There were four months between when I was saying those things and a lawsuit coming to light,” the People We Meet on Vacation actress stated, adding that she’s not familiar with the legalities of the lawsuit. “I had no idea about any of this stuff, so I was just purely venting to my friend about how I felt about the press rollout for that f***ing terrible movie.”
According to Jamil, she “didn’t like how the press was being handled” given the movie’s themes of domestic violence.
“I grew up with domestic violence in my home, I was a victim of domestic violence in my 20s [and it] made me feel some type of way,” Jamil said, referring to the It Ends With Us promotional tour. “The way that the interviews were set up for the success of making a really beautiful bonding interview and was met with callous or sarcastic or cold or diluted answers. It offended me.”
Lively, who starred as Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us and also executive produced the film, was publicly branded as tone-deaf for rarely discussing the domestic violence themes in her press interviews. She did, meanwhile, share a list of resources to social media, which Jamil texted Abel seemed “so cold.”
“I took it to the group chat, talked about it with my friend who happens to be being treated very badly by some very powerful wealthy celebrities, some of whom are involved,” Jamil alleged on Friday. “I don’t know about you, but when it’s my girlfriend being upset by anyone, I don’t care what’s going on or who did what. … I see red, I am 10 toes down, balls to the f***ing wall. I will ride dawn for my girlfriends and they will do the same for me.”
Jamil further stressed that her texts are usually meant for their friend group to “bitch and gossip and affirm” each other.
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues with 181 pages of documents unsealed on Tuesday, January 20. In the docs, obtained by Us Weekly, several members from the It Ends With Us cast — including Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer — were deposed and slammed Baldoni during their testimonies. Communications between Lively […]
“We’re present for one another, and it’s a joyous part of womanhood,” she said of her group chat. “It’s a victimless crime because no one’s ever supposed to see those text messages. Me calling her a ‘suicide bomber’ is just a reference to me watching someone use their own terrible answers in interviews to blow up their own career or their own project.”
Jamil also noted that she was “just kidding around in private text messages” that no one was supposed to read besides her friend.
“I would never have put that out there for the world … ‘cause I don’t want to cause harm or trouble for that person,” Jamil stated. “I don’t want to make anyone feel bad. I just want to be able to express that to my friend. That’s healthy [and] that’s normal.”
Lively has not publicly addressed Jamil’s messages, though a source told Us, “It’s disappointing that instead of listening to women when they speak out other women call them names and discredit them in defense of a fake male feminist.”
