The courtroom war tied to It Ends With Us may have cooled on paper, but Blake Lively is not walking away quietly.
Days after announcing a settlement in the broader legal clash surrounding the 2024 film, Lively has now moved to recover legal fees and pursue damages against actor-director Justin Baldoni and his production banner, Wayfarer Studios. Court filings in Manhattan federal court show that the actress is arguing Baldoni’s earlier defamation suit was not merely unsuccessful — but retaliatory.
Her legal team says the dismissal of Baldoni’s claims last year positioned Lively as the prevailing party, opening the door for compensation that could include attorney fees, multiplied damages and punitive penalties under California law.
The dispute traces back to accusations Lively made during the aftermath of filming the domestic-violence-themed drama. She had alleged sexual harassment during production, igniting a bitter legal standoff that rapidly spiraled beyond Hollywood gossip into full-scale litigation.
Although Judge Lewis Liman dismissed Lively’s harassment allegations and several related claims in April, he allowed the retaliation aspect of the dispute to survive. That surviving thread is now keeping the conflict alive despite Monday’s settlement announcement.
Lively’s lawyers argued that by abandoning any appeal rights as part of the agreement, Baldoni and the other defendants remain exposed to potential personal liability tied to what they described as an attempt to intimidate and silence her through the courts.
Baldoni’s camp sees the ending very differently.
Attorney Bryan Freedman maintained that the settlement reflected weakness in Lively’s position rather than strength, insisting the actress resolved the matter because continuing the case risked defeat. He described the remaining legal fight over fees as a narrow procedural issue already pending before the court for months.
Both camps, notably, emerged from the settlement declaring victory.
The legal wrangling also hinges on a California statute enacted in 2023 that shields sexual-harassment accusers from retaliatory defamation lawsuits filed by alleged offenders. Lively’s attorneys are leaning heavily on that law in their latest push for damages.
At one stage, Baldoni had launched a massive $400 million lawsuit accusing Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and others of orchestrating a campaign to damage his reputation and seize creative control of the film. The court ultimately ruled he failed to establish defamation claims against Lively, while communications she made to a California civil rights agency were deemed legally protected.
Despite the courtroom turbulence, It Ends With Us proved commercially successful. The adaptation, starring Lively as a florist trapped in a troubled marriage opposite Baldoni’s neurosurgeon character, collected more than $351 million worldwide.
