Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have reached a settlement in the epic legal battle of retaliation and sexual harassment that was scheduled to go to trial this month.
Lively had alleged that Baldoni, following the release of their 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” engaged in a retaliatory smear campaign led by a crisis PR designed to damage her reputation on social media. She had also accused Baldoni and other producers of the film of sexual harassment on set, but a judge tossed 10 of 13 of those claims in Lively’s suit last month.
Now that a settlement has been reached, the long legal battle will avoid going to trial.
Lawyers for both Lively and Baldoni released a joint statement on Monday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“The end product – the movie ‘It Ends With Us’ — is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life,” their reps said. “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind. We 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.”
The drama between Lively and Baldoni dates back to December 2024, when Lively spoke to The New York Times about accusations of sexual harassment and shared private messages that outlined an alleged “social combat plan” of planted social media posts designed to tarnish Lively’s reputation. Though “It Ends With Us” was a box office success, it was surrounded by online drama regarding the power dynamics on set and Lively’s attitude towards the film’s themes of domestic violence and abuse.
After the New York Times article, Baldoni sued Lively in a defamation suit for $400 million and the New York Times for $250 million, but both suits were later tossed by a judge. He had claimed that Lively’s PR team, as well as naming Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, in the suit, was responsible for their own smear campaign and that the New York Times had intentionally overlooked key context from his side of the leaked private conversations. The ongoing drama that escalated over the last year plus involved claims that Reynolds may have been secretly trying to insult Baldoni with a character in “Deadpool and Wolverine,” and that even Taylor Swift might have needed to be subpoenaed.
Lively had also accused Baldoni and his partner at production company Wayfarer Studios that Baldoni discussed with Lively his sex life without her consent, that he had improvised unwanted kissing, that he repeatedly entered her trailer while undressed or breastfeeding, and that producer Jamey Heath showed her a video of his wife naked (Baldoni’s legal team had denied all those accusations). However, last month, a judge ruled that her claims did not meet a legal standard, and she would only have been able to use her complaints about those incidents as a basis for potential retaliation.
