Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni agreed Monday to end their legal feud over the 2024 film “It Ends With Us,” averting a trial in New York that had been set to move forward after the case narrowed in federal court. The settlement came just two weeks before jury selection was scheduled to begin May 18, with the parties previously positioned as courtroom adversaries over claims tied to an acrimonious production.
In a joint statement issued through their lawyers, the actors said they wanted to “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind,” as they moved to resolve the dispute. They also said, “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 settlement terms were not disclosed. A federal judge in Manhattan had tossed some claims from both sides, setting up the remaining issues for trial in New York that would have further drawn public attention to allegations that have swirled around the film’s creation and its messaging.
Lively sued at the end of 2024, bringing claims against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios. Weeks later, Baldoni sued Lively in response, accusing her and her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist of defamation and extortion. Baldoni, who directed the film and starred in it with Lively, denied harassing Lively or orchestrating a smear campaign, and he said the complaints about his behavior were made up as part of an effort to seize creative control.
Last June, Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed Baldoni’s defamation and extortion lawsuit. In April, Liman threw out Lively’s sexual harassment claims, ruling that she could not pursue them under federal law because she was an independent contractor rather than an employee on the set. In that decision, Liman acknowledged the complexity of the matter and said 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.”
With the case’s claims narrowed, the trial was to focus on Lively’s allegation that Baldoni and the studio retaliated against her sexual harassment complaints by hiring publicists to turn the public against her. Her lawyers said that effort involved hiring a “digital army” to post what they described as bogus negative content about Lively on social media platforms and feeding “manufactured content to unwitting reporters.”
Lively’s 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, in turn, said it was Lively who strategically manipulated his public image, including by leveraging help from her famous friends.
The dispute unfolded as “It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel about a relationship devolving into domestic violence, was released in August 2024. The film exceeded box office expectations even as some critics questioned whether it glorified abuse, and Lively and Baldoni’s fractious falling out drew additional attention that overshadowed the movie’s message and success.
In their joint statement, the parties said, “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,” as they moved to close the litigation and allow the actors and others involved to move forward.