The legal battle between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues despite their agreement to resolve their legal differences last month.
On Monday, lawyers for Lively were back in court, trying to get a judge to make Baldoni pay her legal bills plus other penalties, according to The Associated Press.
Lively’s lawyers said the 38-year-old actor is entitled to the money under a California law because Baldoni’s countersuit was thrown out last year by a judge.
Last June, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s US$400-million defamation claim against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds after finding that her accusations of sexual harassment were legally protected, making them exempt from libel claims.
Neither actor was present for the hearing before U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman in New York on Monday.
Baldoni and his lawyer, Ellyn Garofalo, accused Lively of trying to do “an end run” around a trial that was cancelled when the two agreed to settle, The Associated Press reports.
While the financial terms of the settlement weren’t announced publicly, Garofalo told the court it was resolved without Baldoni and his production company “paying a cent of the $300 million in damages she was demanding.”
“Reopening this for basically what is an alternative trial would involve reopening discovery, new experts, new expert depositions,” she reportedly said.
Lively’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said the lawsuit Baldoni brought against Lively was the type of litigation the California law was designed to stop. The law is intended to protect survivors of sexual harassment from protracted and damaging legal fights.
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Global News has reached out to Lively and Baldoni’s legal representatives for further comment, but has not received a response.
Last month, Baldoni’s lawyers asked a judge to deny any future proceedings related to Lively’s request to recover legal fees and damages that resulted from the legal dispute against Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios.
This came after the It Ends With Us co-stars reached a settlement following Lively’s claims that Wayfarer Studios retaliated against her for complaining about misconduct and organized what she refers to as a “smear campaign” aimed at destroying her reputation and career prospects through negative social media posts.
Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios denied Lively’s allegations and Baldoni was dismissed as a defendant in U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman’s April 2 ruling, when he threw out Lively’s sexual harassment claims.
In a letter filed in May, Garofalo wrote, “The Wayfarer Defendants respectfully request that the Court deny Plaintiff’s request for further briefing, an evidentiary hearing or other proceedings on whether Plaintiff is entitled to a recovery.”
“After agreeing to a settlement in which she dismissed her three remaining claims without the Wayfarer Defendants paying a cent of the $300 million in damages she was demanding, Plaintiff Blake Lively seeks leave to submit further briefing ‘to address any impact of the Court’s intervening rulings,’” Garofalo added.
Baldoni’s legal team said Lively was asking for “the compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs issues in light of these developments.”
His lawyers argued that Lively failed to explain why further arguments were necessary “‘to address any impact of the Court’s intervening rulings’ since the dismissal of the Wayfarer Complaint.”
The request for denial came after a year and a half of legal battles between Baldoni and Lively.
In a joint statement released last month, lawyers for Lively and Baldoni shared their feelings about moving on from the legal battle.
“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. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind,” both parties’ lawyers said in a statement to Variety.
“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,” Bryan Freedman, Garofalo, Gottlieb and Esra Hudson said.
Lively and Baldoni’s legal saga began in December 2024, when Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation, 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 Reynolds’ “megacelebrity friend” to approve scene revisions after a meeting at Lively and Reynolds’ home.
Baldoni sued Lively and Reynolds for defamation in January 2025. That lawsuit came the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.
In late March, Lively asked a judge to dismiss Baldoni’s countersuit, calling his claims “vengeful and rambling,” after she filed the lawsuit against him for sexual harassment and retaliation.
— with files from The Associated Press
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