Justin Baldoni speaks out after Blake Lively legal battle ends in settlement

Justin Baldoni used an Instagram video posted Wednesday, July 8, to re-enter the Blake Lively dispute after the two sides reached a settlement that ended the case before trial. Speaking alongside his wife, Emily Baldoni, and addressing his 4 million followers, Baldoni framed the last two years as painful and said “gratitude” had helped carry them through it.

The timing matters because the legal truce did not erase the damage around It Ends With Us, the 2024 film that became both a box-office success and a cultural flashpoint over domestic violence. Baldoni did not name Lively or the movie directly in the nearly five-minute video, but his decision to speak now signals a bid to shape how audiences remember the conflict after months of public filings, dueling claims and reputational fallout.

The fight began in December 2024, when Lively publicly accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during production of the Colleen Hoover adaptation and said Wayfarer Studios retaliated after she complained. Baldoni denied the allegations and responded in January 2025 with countersuits against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging defamation and extortion. He also sued The New York Times over its reporting on the dispute, and U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed those defamation claims.

Liman later narrowed Lively’s case as well, tossing most of her claims in April 2026, including harassment, defamation and conspiracy, while allowing breach of contract, retaliation and aiding-and-abetting retaliation claims to proceed. The parties announced a settlement on May 4, and the court signed off on it three days later. The terms were not made public, leaving the core legal and financial details unresolved in public view even as the trial date disappeared.

One issue remained after the settlement: Lively’s push for attorney fees and damages tied to Baldoni’s now-dismissed countersuit. On June 12, Liman ordered Wayfarer Studios to pay her defense costs under California Civil Code section 47.1, a 2023 law meant to protect sexual assault and harassment accusers from retaliatory defamation suits. That ruling preserved a separate fight over damages, showing that the settlement ended the trial but not every consequence of the case.

Baldoni’s public reset comes at a sensitive moment for the film’s legacy. It Ends With Us was already loaded with meaning because of its story about domestic abuse, and the off-screen conflict turned it into an even larger conversation about promotion, accountability and celebrity power. By speaking after the settlement, Baldoni is trying to reclaim some control over a story that has already reshaped the audience’s view of the film and everyone attached to it.