Blake Lively has called time on her bitter two-year legal battle with Justin Baldoni, in a surprise move just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal.
The actress, 38, finally reached a settlement with Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, as well as the PR firm he hired, over claims of retaliation and breach of contract relating to their 2024 movie It Ends With Us.
In a joint statement released on Monday, the pair said the film remained a ‘source of pride’ to all who worked to bring it to life and emphasized its mission to raise awareness for domestic violence survivors.
‘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,’ they added.
The statement did not include an apology from either of the parties, who have been locked in a messy court battle since December 2024, when Lively first launched her her suit.
Instead Baldoni and Lively’s teams said it was their ‘sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online’.
The settlement came after a judge last month gutted Lively’s case, dismissing 10 of her 13 claims including all of the sexual harassment allegations.
The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s production company is over after both sides reached a settlement, the Daily Mail can exclusively reveal
The ruling also meant that Baldoni was no longer a named defendant in the case.
Instead Wayfarer along with the company he set up to make It Ends With Us and TAG PR, his public relations agency, were due to go on trial for the alleged ‘smear campaign’ against Lively after she spoke out.
Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios had countersued Lively and her husband, ‘Deadpool’ actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge dismissed Baldoni´s claims last June.
Lively’s team alleged that she lost tens of millions in endorsements on top of nine-figure hits to her earnings and profits – figures Wayfarer’s side has dismissed as wildly inflated.
Its attorney, Amir Kaltgrad, argued that the numbers were ‘pie in the sky,’ broken down as: $143 million in lost profits, $132 million in lost earnings and several million more for lost endorsements.
He claimed the calculations from Lively’s experts about her lost earnings were speculative.
One of them made an ‘unrealistic assumption’ about how much work Lively would do in the years after It Ends With Us, he told the court.
‘It Ends With Us,’ an adaptation of Colleen Hoover´s bestselling 2016 novel that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut.
But the movie´s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.