Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have avoided the explosive trial that threatened to drag their bitter It Ends With Us feud back into open court, after the actress reached a last-minute settlement with his production company and public relations team.
The agreement came just two weeks before trial was set to begin on May 18, ending what had become a sprawling legal fight over breach of contract, alleged reputational harm, and a movie that was once promoted as a story meant to raise awareness for domestic violence survivors.
Highlights
- Blake Lively settled her case against Wayfarer Studios and TAG PR just weeks before a May 18 trial.
- A judge had already dismissed 10 of her 13 claims and removed Justin Baldoni as a defendant before the settlement was reached.
- Both sides avoided a courtroom fight over disputed nine-figure damage claims, with the defense calling Lively’s estimates “pie in the sky.”
The settlement does not include an apology from either side. Instead, both camps released a statement framing the film as a point of shared pride while acknowledging that Lively’s concerns “deserved to be heard.”
“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,” the statement read.
The 17-month-long battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni has come to an end
Image credits: Getty/XNY/Star Max
The tension between Lively and Baldoni traces back to the making of It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel.
Pre-production began in Los Angeles in early 2023, with Lively and Baldoni reportedly spotted at a Soho House table read during what still appeared to be a promising start for the project.
By April 10, 2023, Baldoni had hired intimacy coordinator Rachel Stein after Lively’s team requested changes to explicit scenes in the script.
Image credits: Getty/XNY/Star Max
Those early production decisions later became part of a much larger dispute over what happened on set, how concerns were handled, and whether the working environment broke down before the film reached audiences.
The public feud became harder to ignore during the film’s press cycle in July and August 2024.
As promotion ramped up, rumors spread that Lively and Baldoni were not aligned. Lively was criticized online for leaning heavily into florals and lifestyle-style promotion, while critics argued the film’s heavier themes were being pushed into the background.
Image credits: Getty/Roy Rochlin
The cast also appeared to avoid group promotion with Baldoni, adding to the perception that something had gone wrong behind the scenes.
On August 8, 2024, TMZ published a video showing what appeared to be a tense exchange between Lively and Baldoni on set.
The next day, August 9, 2024, It Ends With Us premiered. Despite the drama around its release, the film opened with a $50 million debut and ultimately became a major box-office success, earning more than $351 million worldwide.
Despite the success of the film, four days later, on August 13, Baldoni hired crisis publicist Melissa Nathan.
Lively accused Baldoni of intimate misconduct, while he accused her of trying to destroy his career
Image credits: GabyGabsOcampo
Image credits: imdb
The dispute became a legal matter in December 2024.
On December 20, Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department accusing Baldoni of s**ual harassment and retaliation tied to the production.
On December 21, she filed suit, naming Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, publicist Melissa Nathan, and others in a case built around claims of workplace misconduct, retaliation, emotional distress, and an alleged smear campaign.
Baldoni denied Lively’s allegations, calling them false and claiming they were part of a larger effort to rewrite what had happened behind the scenes.
On January 16, 2025, he filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and others, accusing them of defamation and extortion.
His lawsuit accused her and Reynolds of trying to wrestle control of the film away from him, both creatively and publicly, then using harassment allegations and negative press to destroy his career when he resisted.
Image credits: Getty/Araya Doheny
Baldoni’s team argued that the result was professional ruin. They claimed he was pushed out of the film’s public rollout, separated from the cast during promotion, and turned into the villain.
Around the same period, Baldoni and his publicists also pursued claims involving The New York Times, which had published reporting on Lively’s allegations.
The public fight grew louder after leaked audio, text messages, and competing legal statements began circulating.
On January 27 and January 30, Lively moved to dismiss Baldoni’s countersuit, describing it as retaliatory. The judge later warned both sides over public fighting as the case continued toward trial.
On February 4, Baldoni’s side released intimacy coordinator notes and texts showing efforts to arrange a meeting with Lively. On February 19 and March 20, Lively amended her complaint and moved to dismiss Baldoni’s $400 million suit.
Baldoni’s claims, as well as most of Lively’s allegations, were dismissed
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In June 2025, Baldoni’s claims against Lively, Reynolds, and The New York Times were dismissed. The court found he had not shown that the statements at issue overcame the legal protections attached to Lively’s civil rights complaint and reporting about it.
In April 2026, Judge Lewis Liman dismissed 10 of Lively’s 13 claims, including her s**ual harassment allegations. The ruling also removed Baldoni and the other individual defendants from the case, leaving Wayfarer, the It Ends With Us production entity, and TAG PR to face the remaining claims.
That decision dramatically changed the stakes of trial.
At a pre-trial hearing last week, Lively’s attorneys argued that the actress had suffered massive financial damage. They said she lost tens of millions in endorsements, along with much larger projected losses in earnings and profits.
Wayfarer’s attorneys rejected those numbers.
Attorney Amir Kaltgrad called Lively’s expert calculations “pie in the sky.” The disputed figures included $143 million in lost profits, $132 million in lost earnings, and several million more in lost endorsements.
Kaltgrad said Lively’s team was making an “unrealistic assumption” about how much work she would have received after It Ends With Us.
Image credits: Instagram/blakelively
Only days before the settlement, Lively’s team insisted she wanted trial.
Outside court last week, her lawyer Sigrid McCawley dismissed the idea of a quiet resolution and said Lively was ready to testify.
“Blake’s hope is to be able to have her voice heard in that courtroom and that’s what we’re focused on right now,” McCawley said.
She added that Lively was “expecting to take the stand.”
“Blake’s been ready for this trial, it’s a moment she’s been waiting for a long time, to have her voice heard in this court,” McCawley said.
“She’s feeling really good… she’s finally at a point where she will be able to tell her side.”
That made the settlement especially striking. The case had been moving toward testimony and another wave of public reaction. Instead, the remaining claims ended through a negotiated agreement.
"Finally." Netizens took to social media to share their thoughts on the resolution
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