The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni has been going on for months now, and there’s no end in immediate site, as a trial is currently set for March 2026. However, the actress recently got a pair of big wins. The news about this also happened to come out one day before It Ends With Us one-year anniversary, highlighting how much time has passed as this complex situation continues to unfold.
The Big Wins Blake Lively Got In Her Legal Battle With Justin Baldoni
On August 8, one day before It Ends With Us' first anniversary and about two months after a judge dismissed Baldoni’s lawsuits, he issued two orders in favor of Lively.
First of all, Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Liman issued an order that called out Justin Baldoni’s team for allegedly trying to “invite public speculation and scandal.” This came after his camp filed a transcript from Blake Lively’s deposition that’s almost 300 pages on a public court docket. According to the judge, it’s normal to consider depositions during litigation; however, what they did with this was “not routine.” Ultimately, he struck the deposition from the record, explaining via NY Post:
It is not routine, however, for parties to attach an entire confidential deposition transcript when citing only limited portions of that transcript … in order to put the other side and the court to the burden of justifying continued sealing.
This happened after Lively’s team claimed that by Baldoni’s team doing this, they were “creating a media circus.” It also claimed that this forced her to argue for the transcript to stay sealed unnecessarily. Meanwhile, the director’s side apparently did this to help their argument that they weren’t communicating to conduct a smear campaign.
However, the judge’s ruling noted that Baldoni’s letter only used “one fragment of one sentence from Lively’s deposition.” Liman ultimately agreed with her team, saying:
The conclusion is inescapable that the Wayfarer Parties filed gratuitous amounts of irrelevant pages so that, if Lively moved for continued sealing of the irrelevant pages, the Wayfarer Parties could then use Lively’s response for their own public-relations purposes. The Court has not only the power but also the responsibility to step in.
The report did note that it’s still possible for this deposition to come out later in this ongoing legal battle.
Along with this, Liman issued a ruling in regard to letters to the court filed by Perez Hilton. The blogger is fighting a subpoena from Lively, and this new order stops him from using “disrespectful” and “intemperate” language, “demeaning nicknames,” and “personal attacks” in his court filings. It comes after he filed six letters to the court, where he called Lively’s lawyer “deplorable” and the actress a “plantation-loving princess.” Hilton has said he will follow this order.
What makes all this even more relevant is that it broke the day before It Ends With Us’ one-year anniversary.
This Happened One Day Before It Ends With Us' One-Year Anniversary
Now, the legal battle between Baldoni and Lively began in December 2024. The actress filed a complaint against her co-star, where she accused him of sexual harassment and him and his team of conducting a smear campaign against her. He countersued her and Ryan Reynolds for extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy. However, the Jane the Virgin actor’s suit was dismissed in June.
However, before this became a legal battle, there were rumors flying left and right. It Ends With Us was released on August 9, 2024, and on the same day, rumors about a rift between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni started to pick up steam. This speculation had to do with alleged cuts of the movie, Ryan Reynolds’ potential involvement in the film, and more.
Then, things really escalated at the end of 2024 when this situation turned into a legal one.
While all that has taken the spotlight when it comes to It Ends With Us, the movie itself (which you can watch with a Netflix subscription) was successful. It performed well at the box office, making $351.4 million worldwide and $148.5 million domestically on a $25 million budget.
Considering that and its 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter, there were questions about whether the sequel, It Starts With Us, would happen. As of right now, there’s no word on whether that will ever get made.
However, there’s no question that the movie is still talked about in reference to the ongoing legal battle between Lively and Baldoni. So, as we learn more about all of this, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.
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