Ryan Reynolds hints at tough times in cryptic post amid Blake Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Ryan Reynolds may have offered some hints of distress on Instagram amid his wife Blake Lively’s courtroom drama with Justin Baldoni, which has everyone doing a double take.

While friends and fans have had a lot to say since Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against her 'It Ends With Us' co-star and director Baldoni, Reynolds has kept mum about the situation.

However, on Monday, December 23, the 'Deadpool' star posted a rather cryptic message to his Instagram Story — rocking his iconic red suit for a good cause.

Ryan Reynolds' cryptic post

Encouraging his nearly 54 million followers to donate to the SickKids Foundation, Ryan Reynolds wrote: “Thank you @rowlandbb for directing this amazing little piece during a time I really didn’t feel like putting the suit on,” giving a nod to Bryan Rowland for helping bring the ad to life.

But why wasn’t he in the mood for the suit? Ryan didn’t spill the tea but fans can’t help but speculate it might have something to do with the storm brewing around his wife’s situation.

The video featured a sweet cameo from their 8-year-old daughter Inez, who played Kidpool and even got bleeped out for saying, “f**ked up."

Ryan quipped, “Thank you … for being such a good person despite your dad asking you to swear (for a good cause).”

Furthermore, Ryan and Blake pledged to match $500,000 in donations to the charity, calling it “a sanctuary for so many kids and their parents traversing the unimaginable," Page Six reported.

Blake Lively's lawsuit against Justin Baldoni

Meanwhile, Blake Lively is locked in a legal battle with her 'It Ends With Us' co-star and director Justin Baldoni. It all started back in August when the 'It Ends With Us' adaptation premiered.

Fans were quick to notice something was off: Lively didn’t pose for red-carpet photos with Baldoni, skipped joint press interviews, and she and her co-stars all unfollowed him on Instagram.

Fast forward to this weekend when Lively filed a harassment complaint against Baldoni. The 'Gossip Girl' alum also alleged that Baldoni’s crisis PR manager launched a social media “smear campaign” to drag her name through the mud.

Lively claimed that the PR campaign “weaponized a digital army around the country” to fuel a nasty online “pile-on".

The lawsuit even includes text messages allegedly from Baldoni’s team plotting to “bury” her reputation in the media. According to Blake, the strategy involved creating, seeding, and promoting fake content on social media platforms to make it look authentic.

Lively even referenced her previous press tour nightmares, saying the media coverage painted her in a “distasteful” light. Critics slammed her for not addressing the movie’s serious themes and dredged up old interviews that didn’t sit well with audiences.

Ryan Reynolds' involvement and Justin Baldoni's response

Ryan Reynolds didn’t stay completely in the background during this debacle. His name popped up in the filing multiple times, with one interesting detail revealing that he had allegedly blocked Baldoni on social media even before 'It Ends With Us' hit theaters.

Apparently, Reynolds also sat in on an “all-hands-on-deck” meeting where Baldoni’s alleged inappropriate behavior on set was the main topic of discussion. So, it seems like he’s been quietly backing Lively through this storm.

Meanwhile, not one to let these accusations slide, Baldoni has vehemently denied Lively’s claims. His lawyers called the allegations “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious".

Baldoni’s and Wayfarer Studios’ attorney Bryan Freedman took it a step further, defending TAG PR’s actions. He insisted the PR team’s response was standard for dealing with “threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources".

He wrote, “The standard scenario planning TAG PR drafted proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews, and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on."

“It’s ironic that the New York Times, through their effort to ‘uncover’ an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context — the very same tactics she’s accusing the firm of implementing,” Freedman concluded.