Justin Baldoni recently opened up about his mental health struggles, admitting that he was “not in the best place” after a particularly intense year. In a podcast episode recorded in November 2024 and released on February 10, 2025, Justin Baldoni spoke about exhaustion, anxiety, and the pressures he faced in both his personal and professional life. This podcast episode comes out during Baldoni’s legal dispute with Blake Lively.
Let’s take a closer look at what Baldoni shared, the challenges he faced, and the larger situation unfolding around him.
What did Justin Baldoni say about his mental health?
In a November 2024 episode of the Gent’s Talk Podcast, Justin Baldoni opened up about his mental health struggles. The episode aired on February 10, 2025.
He admitted to experiencing exhaustion and emotional stress, stating, “This morning, I sent a text message to my best friend Jamey and the president of my company, Tera, and I told them that I wasn’t in the best place.” Baldoni also revealed that he had been dealing with anxiety, waking up at 4:30 a.m. with his “heart racing,” realizing he had not given himself time to heal from an intense year.
Baldoni, 41, co-founded Wayfarer Studios, where Jamey Heath is CEO and Tera Hanks is president. He described his struggles, saying, “A lot of material success and a lot of emotional stress was very hard on me and my family.”
Despite loving his work, he admitted feeling overwhelmed. “It’s easy to, as you said earlier, fall back into our programming and be swept away in the current of self,” he said. He also stressed that healing and growth are not linear. “If you don’t have setbacks and if you don’t have plateaus, then you don’t have the opportunity to group and to push forward,” he added.
The podcast’s release comes amid Baldoni’s legal dispute with Blake Lively, 37. In December 2024, Lively sued him for sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign after It Ends with Us. Baldoni denied the claims and countersued.
On December 31, 2024, Baldoni sued The New York Times for $250 million, alleging libel and invasion of privacy over an article about the accusations. In January 2025, he filed a separate $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and her firm Vision PR, Inc. He accused them of civil extortion and defamation.
The court has scheduled Baldoni and Lively’s trial for March 9, 2026.
