Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us legal feud reignites in New York court

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's legal tussle is not over yet. Less than a month after the stars of It Ends With Us reached for a settlement, Lively’s attorneys were in front of a New York judge on Monday to demand legal fees and damages from Baldoni. The two had settled in May 2026 in their three-year-long battle.

The 38-year-old actress's legal team argued that the defamation lawsuit brought against her by Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, was a retaliatory move prohibited by California law. Lawyers for Baldoni rejected the claim.

It is not yet clear what sum has been sought by Lively.

The Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni case

Lively filed her first complaint against Baldoni in December 2024, alleging the actor -- who also directed the film -- had spoken inappropriately about his sex life and sought to alter the film to include sex scenes that were not in the script.

The actress, who came to fame on the television series "Gossip Girl," said Baldoni orchestrated a PR and social media campaign to ruin Lively's reputation.

Baldoni and his studio Wayfarer had countersued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds with claims of extortion and defamation -- but a judge dismissed those claims last year.

Wayfarer previously insisted that neither the studio, its executives, nor its PR team did anything to retaliate against Lively.The federal judge handling the case, Lewis Liman, also dismissed some of Lively's claims but upheld her allegations of retaliation.

The full terms of the out-of-court settlement reached between the two parties have not been publicly disclosed.

It Ends With Us was based on a best-selling novel by the US writer Colleen Hoover. It was produced by Lively and Reynolds and directed by Baldoni. It Ends with Us made more than $350 million at the box office in 2024, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.

(With agency inputs)