NEED TO KNOW
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s friend Humphrey Ker spoke about the couple’s ongoing legal battle in an interview
“It waxes and wanes in the public interest,” said Ker, “but things still continue to rumble on in the background”
Lively sued her It Ends With Us costar Justin Baldoni in December 2024, kicking off an intense legal battle in the public eye
A friend of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively is offering insight into how they’ve coped amid their ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
British actor Humphrey Ker, an executive on Reynolds’ and Rob Mac‘s soccer team Wrexham A.F.C. who has been featured on the FX docuseries Welcome to Wrexham, briefly spoke about Lively and Reynolds in an interview with The Telegraph published Nov. 13.
“Ryan and Blake have obviously been slightly through the wringer over the last 18 months with all of that business and are still going through that in some ways,” Ker, 43, said of their headline-making legal battle with Lively’s It Ends With Us costar Baldoni.
“It waxes and wanes in the public interest,” he continued, “but things still continue to rumble on in the background.”
Ker added, “I think what they love about coming to Wrexham is that no one there gives two s—s about [their celebrity]. What they care about is whether he’ll buy them a new center back. It’s an escape.”
“But, yeah,” said Ker, “I feel for them.”
Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty
Ryan Reynolds, Humphrey Ker and Rob Mac on May 2, 2023
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Reynolds’ pal and team co-owner Mac, 48, (formerly Rob McElhenney) told Variety in May how he and wife Kaitlin Olson show support for Reynolds, 49, and Lively, 38, in “navigating” the legal battle. “We both are just trying to offer our support in any way that we can that doesn’t just simply add oxygen to the fire,” he said at the time.
In December 2024, Lively sued her It Ends With Us costar-director Baldoni, 41, and others for sexual harassment and retaliation, which he denies. Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively and Reynolds, accusing them of civil extortion and defamation, has since been dismissed by a judge.
Lively and Baldoni are both expected to testify when her case goes to trial in March 2026.
In June, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman told TMZ that the actor-director “wants to be vindicated, and that’s all that he cares about.”
“He knows who he is. He knows what he’s done; he knows what he hasn’t done. And he wants the truth to come out, and he wants to do that in the appropriate way,” Freedman said at the time. “… He’s waiting for his day in court, where he can speak out to tell the truth.”
Read the original article on People