Justin Baldoni Previously Admitted to ‘Unhealthy Relationship’ With Porn

Years before his past issues with porn were named in a lawsuit about his alleged behavior on the set of It Ends With Us, director Justin Baldoni previously shared how he developed an "unhealthy" relationship with porn after being introduced to it at a young age.

"I was introduced to porn when I was ten years old. Long before I ever, you know, could have an erection or even knew how I felt about anything," Baldoni, now 37, shared on a July 2021 episode of Sarah Grynberg's "A Life of Greatness" podcast. "We’ve sexualized this thing, so of course it becomes fascinating and interesting and you’re like, ‘oh my God, boobs.' And then, you know, hormones start raging."

Baldoni added at the time that he "sought refuge [in porn] when I felt alone, or when I felt abandoned, or when I felt hurt or something like that, because it was a dopamine rush - I didn’t know that then. At an early age, I trained my brain to deal with pain with the dopamine hit."

On the podcast, he shared that despite never drinking alcohol or doing drugs, he could still have a vice and use something in an "unhealthy" way.

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"And I found myself, over the course of my life, going back to looking at images and videos of naked women when I was feeling necessarily bad about myself," he told Grynberg. "And I knew that it was an issue for me when I would tell myself that I don’t want to do that."

Baldoni is also the author of a book titled Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity, where he wrote extensively about his "relation" to the porn industry and how it informs young men's understanding of consent.

"I do believe that especially the porn that young boys are watching is very violent and because we never no one ever sits us down and teaches us about consent, we learn it through porn," he said in 2021. "So what do you have? You have an entire generation of boys who think that when a girl says ‘no,' or ‘stop,' or ‘that hurts,' that that means that’s good."

Baldoni's previous comments about porn are relevant again after Blake Lively filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her It Ends With Us costar on Friday, December 20,, alleging that Baldoni's behavior toward her on set caused the actress "severe emotional distress."

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The lawsuit also alleges that, before filming resumed in January 2024, a meeting was conducted to address Lively's claims of a "hostile work environment" on set, which was attended by numerous people as well as her husband, Ryan Reynolds.

Per the lawsuit, her demands included "no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous ‘pornography addiction,' no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no further mentions of cast and crew's genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake's weight, and no further mention of Blake's dead father."

Bryan Freedman, Baldoni's lawyer, addressed Lively's accusations in a statement to Us Weekly, which he called "completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious."

Freedman claimed to Us that Lively had filed the lawsuit to "fix her negative reputation" and "rehash a narrative" regarding the production of the film, further alleging the actress made "multiple demands and threats" during filming, including "threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."

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Us has reached out to Lively's rep for comment.

"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," Lively said in a statement to The New York Times in December, where she also denied spreading negative information about Baldoni.

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This story was originally published December 21, 2024, 11:15 AM.