While working on the 2024 Colleen Hoover adaptation, Baldoni allegedly sent the actress a seven-minute voice memo about the movie's iconic rooftop scene, which he said in his Jan. 16 lawsuit that Lively completely rewrote after he agreed to let her pitch some changes.
The audio message, published by TMZ Jan. 27, appears to reference Baldoni reading Lively's rewritten scene at an alleged meeting with her husband Ryan Reynolds and her pal Taylor Swift. In the recording, he seemingly apologized to Lively for his lukewarm reception to her script.
"I'm really sorry," Baldoni began, saying that he "fell short and you worked really hard on that."
The 41-year-old continued, "I f--ked up. One thing you should know about me is that I will admit and apologize when I fail. I am far from perfect and I'm a very flawed man, as my wife will attest."
Baldoni—who is married to actress Emily Baldoni—went on to vow he'll "do better" and praised Lively, 37, for having "great friends" who support her work.
"We should all have friends like that aside from the fact that they're two of the most creative people on the planet," he said. "The three of you guys together, it's unbelievable."
However, in an apparent reference to Reynolds and Swift's attendance at their alleged meeting, Baldoni noted to Lively, "I just wanted you to know that I didn't need that."
"Because it's really good," he added of Lively's changes to the script. "I'm excited to go through the whole movie with you."
Elsewhere in his voice memo, Baldoni apologized to Lively for "what you've been through with these other filmmakers," calling them "f--kheads" and saying, "I'm just still kind of blown away that this is the industry we're in and that you've experienced that as a woman."
"Hopefully, it's not been the experience with me," he said, adding that he and Lively were the "secret sauce" to It Ends With Us.
Baldoni ended the recording by apologizing for the lengthy memo, quipping to Lively, who shares four children with Reynolds, "You probably have kids all over you, and a baby on your boob and you're listening to me ramble."
E! News has reached out to Baldoni and Lively's reps for comment on the voice memo but hasn't heard back.
The voice memo was released to the public amid Baldoni's legal battle with Lively, who filed a lawsuit against him in late December alleging sexual harassment during the making of their movie a subsequent smear campaign against her.
In response, Baldoni filed a countersuit against Lively and her husband, accusing them of hijacking his role as director of It Ends With Us and launching a smear campaign against him.
In his lawsuit, Baldoni shared texts he said he exchanged with Lively, in which she compared herself to Emilia Clarke's Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen and appeared to refer to Reynolds and Swift as her "dragons."
"For better or worse, but usually for better," Lively wrote in a text to Baldoni. "Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. you will too, I can promise you."
In his complaint, Baldoni said the "subtext" to Reynolds and Swift joining his meeting with the Gossip Girl alum was that "he needed to comply with Lively's direction for the script."
"The message could not have been clearer," his lawsuit read. "Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s 'dragons,' two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him."
Amid the legal saga, Lively and Reynolds have requested a gag order on Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman, who recently released a 10-minute, behind-the-scenes video from the filming of It Ends With Us to various media outlets with hope that the Baldoni's actions in the footage "refute Ms. Lively’s characterization" of him.
In response, Lively's attorney alleged that the video's release was an "unethical attempt to manipulate the public."
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