For a brief moment, it looked like the drama had fizzled out. Blake Lively, radiant and carefree, was spotted celebrating Halloween dressed as an old lady alongside husband Ryan Reynolds, appearing to move past the legal chaos surrounding her. But as the Daily Mail revealed, the feud between Lively and "It Ends With Us" co-star and director Justin Baldoni is far from over.
What was thought to be a courtroom defeat for Baldoni has instead reignited into one of Hollywood’s most tangled and explosive legal showdowns.
© GC ImagesA Battle of Lawsuits and Public Perception
It all began when Blake Lively, 38, filed a $250 million harassment lawsuit against Baldoni in December. She alleged he behaved inappropriately on the film set of "It Ends With Us," a movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. The complaint quickly snowballed after a New York Times exposé accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and of orchestrating a media campaign to smear Lively.
In response, Baldoni, 41, fired back with a $400 million defamation suit against both Lively and the Times—even naming Ryan Reynolds in the filing. The director claimed Lively tried to seize creative control of the movie, likening herself to Game of Thrones’ Khaleesi and referring to Reynolds and Taylor Swift as her “dragons.”
© GettyWhat followed was months of legal back-and-forth, with each side accusing the other of deceit, manipulation, and digital trickery.
When recent reports suggested Baldoni’s lawsuit had collapsed due to missed deadlines, his attorney, Bryan Freedman, went on the record to insist otherwise. “The truth regarding this case continuously and completely gets distorted in the media,” Freedman told the Daily Mail. “Even something as simple as a procedural update has resulted in a total mischaracterization.”
Freedman clarified that Baldoni’s team intentionally chose not to amend their complaint—not because they missed a deadline, but to preserve their right to appeal after Judge Lewis Liman entered a final judgment earlier this week. “We remain fully committed to pursuing the truth,” Freedman added. “Our clients chose not to amend their complaint to preserve appeal rights.”
Shocking New Allegations from Lively’s Side
Just as Baldoni’s camp was fighting off claims of procedural failure, Lively’s lawyers doubled down with new accusations. In an October 30 filing, her team alleged that Baldoni and "It Ends With Us" producer Jamey Heath used technology to orchestrate a “smear campaign” against her.
© Jose Perez/Bauer-GriffinThe filing also detailed how Lively accused Heath of showing her and an assistant a fully nude home-birth video of his wife, supposedly as “creative inspiration” for a birthing scene in the film. Lively’s team called it “pornographic” and said Heath’s compliance with court orders to hand over the footage was “woefully inadequate,” as only a three-minute clip was produced instead of the full recording.
Her legal team accused Baldoni’s circle of hiding evidence, using encrypted apps like Signal, and abusing attorney-client privilege to shield key materials.
© The Grosby GroupFor now, Baldoni’s side is gearing up for an appeal while Lively’s team presses on with her harassment suit. The tone of both camps suggests there’s no truce in sight.
If anything, this bitter legal feud has evolved into a reputation war, one where every new filing generates headlines and every statement spins into public theater. Neither Blake Lively nor Justin Baldoni seems ready to roll the credits on this blockbuster courtroom saga just yet.
