Inside Blake Lively’s legal (and media) battle against Justin Baldoni: When everyone loses, from money to reputation

It was early afternoon last Monday — Met Gala Monday. Newsrooms (and celebrities) had their eyes fixed on gowns, flowers, and art. Few expected the kind of statement that dropped around 1 p.m. New York time: a surprise announcement that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni — actors, colleagues in the film It Ends With Us, and later sworn enemies — had reached an agreement to end their legal battle. A fight that had dragged on since December 2024, costing them money, stress, and, above all, a wave of very negative publicity that has wounded their careers, perhaps fatally. Sixteen months of complaints, filings, cross‑accusations, and online shouting matches. But to what end? Who loses, and what do they lose? Or who wins… if anyone does.

One must read between the lines of the joint statement to understand what this legal — and financial — truce means for both sides. To begin with, it appears to favor the 38‑year‑old actress: the document underscores that what she reported matters. Baldoni’s team, meanwhile, must swallow their earlier claims that it was all fabricated by Lively, whom they tried to paint as the villain.

The note makes clear that the concerns she raised (as she described from the very first complaint, detailing the smear campaign she says she faced) about having her creative vision reflected in the film — which Baldoni directed and both produced and co‑starred in — “deserved to be heard.” In that, there is a small but meaningful victory: a confirmation that she did, in fact, have a point. And without having to sit before a judge on May 18, as scheduled. Or perhaps she still will.

But a few days after the announcement — once the courtesy had worn off — the lawyers began to bare their teeth. Lively’s team issued a statement on Thursday calling the agreement “a resounding victory” for their client; while counsel for Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer, countered by describing it as a “total victory” for the actor. The latter insist that an early‑April ruling, in which a judge threw out 10 of Lively’s 13 legal claims — “including every sexual harassment claim,” they say — was decisive: “In our view, they settled because they knew they were going to lose in court.” But they had already suffered their own judicial setback a year earlier, when Judge Lewis Liman dismissed the $400 million defamation suit Baldoni had filed against Lively. And that ruling strengthened her position at the time.

The truth is that the victory is mutual: neither side had anything to gain by pushing the case further. A public attempt at conciliation in New York courts last February seemed to go nowhere. It is now clear that a quieter mediation was unfolding behind the scenes. According to U.S. media — from tabloids to more serious outlets — no money changed hands; the deal was clean, sealed with a handshake. That is one way to see it: in reality, both had already lost plenty, and could have lost far more had the case gone to trial. Each has spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars on legal offensives and defenses. And both have paid an even higher price in lost opportunities, as the dispute tarnished their public images and cost them roles.

Baldoni, who rose to fame thanks to his role in the TV comedy Jane the Virgin, has faced backlash after a stream of one‑sided leaks that pushed a misogynistic narrative. He still has a few projects pending as a producer and a documentary already in post‑production as a director.

But Lively’s image has taken an even harder hit. The higher you climb, the harder the fall — and that is exactly what has happened to the actress, long known as Taylor Swift’s best friend (or perhaps not anymore) and the wife of Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds. After being portrayed by that smear campaign as a difficult colleague — a “problem woman,” in the most generic, gendered sense — she has been pulled into a spiral of reputational damage that will not be easy to recover from. She is clearly fighting back: just hours after news of the settlement broke, she was striding triumphantly up the Met Gala steps.

The story doesn’t end there, of course. There’s still a secondary lawsuit to be resolved, which Lively filed against Baldoni last August, demanding he cover her legal costs and compensate her for the psychological and emotional damages she has suffered. Sources close to the actress told Variety that more information about this matter will be available in the coming days, but that, for now, all details regarding this lawsuit remain confidential.

A filing submitted to the federal court in New York states that “the stipulating parties acknowledge and agree that Blake Lively does not release, and retains all claims, rights and remedies in connection with her pending motion for attorneys’ fees, treble damages and punitive damages.”

For this part of the case, the Gossip Girl star has turned to California’s civil code — specifically to a 2023 provision that makes it a crime to use defamation as retaliation against someone who reports sexual harassment, thereby protecting victims of harassment, abuse, and discrimination. And that offense can result in triple the damages, as the law stipulates. In addition, as Lively’s lawyer told Deadline on May 7, Baldoni and his team will not be able to delay the process: “they have waived their right to appeal,” and as a result, “will have to face whatever punishment Judge Liman finds is appropriate under this new law.”

Because even if the main lawsuit has ended in a settlement, this remaining claim is enormously important to the actress. As her lawyers say, her mission from day one was “to expose and hold accountable those who weaponize smear campaigns and retaliatory lawsuits to intimidate and silence survivors.” “That mission continues.” And who knows — May 18, the date that had been circled in red on their calendars, may yet be the day when that happens. That date has not been removed from the court’s calendar.

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