Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have ended their 'It Ends With Us'
dispute in a settlement
[May 05, 2026]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — Actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni agreed Monday to
end their legal feud over the acrimonious production of their 2024 film
“It Ends With Us,” averting a trial that threatened to further tarnish
their reputations and expose the dark side of Hollywood moviemaking.
The costars turned courtroom adversaries settled the civil case two
weeks before they were to go to trial in New York on Lively’s claims
that Baldoni conspired with publicists to preemptively destroy her
reputation after she privately accused him of sexually harassing her on
the movie set.
“Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of
domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we
stand behind," Lively and Baldoni said in a joint statement issued
through their lawyers.
"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 terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Lively, 38, sued Baldoni, 42, and his production company, Wayfarer
Studios, at the end of 2024. Weeks later, Baldoni sued Lively, accusing
her, her husband — “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds — and their publicist
of defamation and extortion.
Baldoni, who directed the dark romantic drama and starred in it with
Lively, had denied harassing her or orchestrating a smear campaign. He’d
claimed the complaints about his behavior were made up by Lively as part
of an effort to seize creative control of the movie.
Monday's settlement came after a federal judge in Manhattan tossed some
of each actors' claims.
Last June, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s defamation and
extortion lawsuit. In April, he threw out Lively’s sexual harassment
claims, ruling that she couldn’t pursue them under federal law because
she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the movie
set.
In their joint statement, the parties said they recognize that Lively’s
concerns “deserved to be heard” and that they ”remain firmly committed
to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments."
The trial, now no longer necessary, had been scheduled to begin with
jury selection on May 18.
“It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016
novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was
released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations despite
criticism that it glorified abuse. Lively and Baldoni's fractious
falling out took attention away from the film, overshadowing its message
and success.
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Blake Lively appears at the SNL50: The Anniversary Special at
Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Feb. 16, 2025, left, and Justin
Baldoni appears at a special screening of "The Boys in the Boat" in
New York on Dec. 13, 2023. (Photos by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
 “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,” Lively and Baldoni said in their statement.
Lively said in her lawsuit that during filming, Baldoni made
inappropriate comments about her appearance, violated physical
boundaries while filming a love scene, and pushed for nudity —
against Lively’s wishes — during a scene in which her character was
giving birth.
Baldoni denied doing anything outside the realm of the normal
creative process of making a movie.
The judge, in the decision tossing out the sexual harassment claims,
acknowledged the complexity of the matter, noting that creative
artists “must have some amount of space to experiment within the
bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for
sexual harassment.”
The trial was to focus on Lively’s claim that Baldoni and the studio
retaliated against her sexual harassment complaints by hiring
publicists to turn the public against her. Her lawyers said that
campaign including hiring a “digital army” to post bogus negative
content about Lively on social media platforms, and feeding
“manufactured content to unwitting reporters.”
The lawsuit said the purpose was to “retaliate against Ms. Lively by
battering her image, harming her businesses, and causing her family
severe emotional harm.”
Baldoni’s lawyers have claimed it was Lively who was strategically
manipulating Baldoni’s public image, partly by leveraging help from
her famous friends.
Lively appeared in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling
Pants” and the TV series “Gossip Girl” from 2007 to 2012 before
starring in films including “The Town” and “The Shallows.”
Baldoni starred in the TV comedy “Jane the Virgin,” directed the
2019 film “Five Feet Apart” and wrote “Man Enough,” a book
challenging traditional notions of masculinity.
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