Blake Lively’s longtime trainer and friend Don Saladino is recalling his interactions with Justin Baldoni.
In a court declaration exclusively obtained by Us Weekly on Wednesday, January 21, Saladino said he communicated with Baldoni, 41, over text and by phone “a handful of times” primarily in February 2023.
“He provided information on his nutrition and workout regimen. His existing workout program included regular back extensions,” Saladino said. “I recommended Mr. Baldoni a workout program and provided information to him about my standard nutrition plan. I also recommended a specific individual who lived near Mr. Baldoni at the time and who could act as his trainer.”
Saladino said he never met Baldoni in person and never considered him a client. Instead, Saladino agreed to provide training to Lively, 38, in connection with her role in the 2024 movie It Ends With Us.
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“At some point during his training for the film, Mr. Baldoni called me on the phone. I recall that Mr. Baldoni asked me how much Ms. Lively would weigh by the start of filming,” Saladino claimed in court documents. “He said that he was asking about her weight in connection with a scripted lift scene, suggesting that he needed to know Ms. Lively’s weight to determine whether he could perform the lift.”
Saladino said the phone call “made me very uncomfortable.”
“I have never experienced someone reaching out to me about a client’s weight,” the fitness coach and business owner claimed in court documents. “I felt that Mr. Baldoni’s explanation for his question was dishonest, given that, based on my understanding of Mr. Baldoni’s workout regimen, he would easily be able to perform a lift in a range that would include Ms. Lively.”
Saladino claimed to never answer Baldoni’s question about Lively’s weight and told the Gossip Girl actress about it afterward.
“Lively seemed embarrassed and hurt that Mr. Baldoni had asked about her weight without her permission,” Saladino claimed.
Us Weekly has reached out to Baldoni’s team for comment.
Baldoni and his legal team have previously responded to Lively’s accusations of “fat-shaming” in court documents, saying the allegation “is based on a single instance in which Baldoni, who had chronic back problems and anticipated a scene in which he would have to lift Lively up, privately asked a physical trainer he had consulted with, who also trained Lively, about her weight. He did so discreetly, outside the workplace and outside Lively’s hearing.”
Baldoni’s team continued, “Even if this inquiry was, as Lively now portrays it, a sly criticism, any petty slight that might have arisen when the trainer, on his own initiative, repeated the comment to Lively, is simply too trivial to constitute sexual harassment.”
In December 2024, Lively sued her It Ends With Us costar and director for sexual harassment. According to the suit, Baldoni’s alleged behavior caused Lively “severe emotional distress.”
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Baldoni has denied the claims, with his attorney slamming the “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” accusations in a previous statement to Us.
Baldoni filed his own lawsuit against Lively in January 2025. The case, however, was dismissed six months later.
Despite a judge’s recommendation that both parties settle the dispute out of court, Lively’s trial is slated to start on May 18.
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