{"id":649755,"date":"2026-05-05T17:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/649755\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T17:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T17:28:13","slug":"blake-lively-justin-baldoni-settle-it-ends-with-us-lawsuit-before-trial-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/649755\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni settle \u2018It Ends With Us\u2019 lawsuit before trial – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year and a half of legal battles, Blake Lively<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Justin Baldoni<\/a> have resolved their case weeks before they were scheduled to go to trial in New York City.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0It Ends With Us co-stars agreed to resolve their legal differences following Lively\u2019s claims that Baldoni\u2019s company, Wayfarer Studios, retaliated against her for complaining about misconduct and organized what she refers to as a \u201csmear campaign\u201d<\/a> aimed at destroying her reputation and career prospects through negative social media posts.<\/p>\n

Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios denied Lively\u2019s allegations and Baldoni was dismissed as a defendant in U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman\u2019s April 2 ruling, when he threw out Lively\u2019s sexual harassment claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRyan Reynolds likely to testify against Justin Baldoni in Blake Lively lawsuit\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In a joint statement released on Monday, lawyers for Lively and Baldoni shared their feelings about moving on from the legal battle.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe end product \u2013 the movie It Ends With Us \u2013 is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors \u2013 and all survivors \u2013 is a goal that we stand behind,\u201d both parties\u2019 lawyers said in a statement to Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard. We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online,\u201d Bryan Freedman, Ellyn Garofalo, Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said.<\/p>\n

The settlement comes after a three-hour hearing earlier this month, where both parties\u2019 legal teams discussed arguments over the admissibility of an expert report commissioned by Lively\u2019s lawyers estimating that she suffered as much as US$230 million in lost earnings and profits due to the alleged smear campaign, and at least $40 million from reputational harm, according to Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for Lively, Naeun Rim, claimed that Wayfarer\u2019s attacks on Lively erased years\u2019 worth of investment in her hair care product line and other companies that were built on her reputation, per Reuters.<\/p>\n

Lively\u2019s lawyers reportedly argued that she missed out on the opportunity to make up to $35 million directing and acting in a sequel to It Ends With Us.<\/p>\n

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Wayfarer lawyer Fabien Thayamballi reportedly called those \u201cpie-in-the-sky\u201d figures that did not reflect Lively\u2019s past earnings.<\/p>\n

Jury selection for the civil trial was scheduled to begin May 18, with opening statements scheduled to be heard the same day.<\/p>\n

After it was announced that Lively and Baldoni had settled their legal battle, the\u00a0Gossip Girl star was photographed walking the carpet at the Met Gala on Monday night.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBlake Lively arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the \u2018Costume Art\u2019 exhibition on Monday, May 4, 2026, in New York.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tEvan Agostini\/Invision\/AP\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Lively and Baldoni\u2019s legal drama began in December 2024, when Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation<\/a>, first in a complaint. Then, in a lawsuit about a week later, Baldoni claimed in a January court filing that he felt pressured by Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds\u2019 \u201cmegacelebrity friend\u201d to approve scene revisions after a meeting at Lively and Reynolds\u2019 home.<\/p>\n

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Baldoni\u00a0sued Lively and Reynolds<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0defamation in January 2025<\/a>.\u00a0That lawsuit came the same day<\/a>\u00a0that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJustin Baldoni\u2019s legal team claps back after Blake Lively\u2019s recent court victory\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In late March,\u00a0Lively asked a judge to dismiss Baldoni\u2019s countersuit<\/a>, calling his claims \u201cvengeful and rambling,\u201d after she filed the lawsuit against him for sexual harassment and retaliation.<\/p>\n

Last June, a judge dismissed Baldoni\u2019s $400-million defamation claim against Lively and Reynolds<\/a>\u00a0after finding that her accusations of sexual harassment were legally protected, making them exempt from libel claims.<\/p>\n

Lively\u2019s lawyers called the dismissal \u201ca total victory and complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit, including Ryan Reynolds, Leslie Sloane and The New York Times.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2014 with files from Reuters and The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a year and a half of legal battles, Blake Lively\u00a0and\u00a0Justin Baldoni have resolved their case weeks before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10682,49,48,75,48591,10683],"class_list":["post-649755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-blake-lively","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-it-ends-with-us","tag-justin-baldoni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}