It’s been just a year since the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni lawsuit splashed onto headlines. Now, the case is quickly approaching a trial.
What began as months of tension between the costars of It Ends With Us has turned into legal action and an ever-growing case. Keep reading to learn the latest in the Lively-Baldoni battle.
Heading to Trial
While a year battling over what each side wants may seem like a long time, it isn’t, according to legal experts.
Benjamin White, a partner at Bloch & White in New York City (not representing either party), commented that, “It might sound like a long time to be fighting this out, but going from filing a case to trial within a year and a half is actually pretty quick.”
The dispute all stems from It Ends With Us, a 2024 film adapted from one of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novels. While the film was a major box office success, the two costars focused instead on each other and tensions hiding beneath the surface.
Looking further into the case, White states, “There has been a massive amount of intermediate fighting over things like discovery. There are over 1,000 entries on the docket for a case that’s only been around for a year. That’s an enormous amount of litigation.”
What Each Side Wants
So what does each side stand to gain?
Blake Lively seeks more than $161 million in damages, connected to lost acting opportunities and financial losses tied to her beverage and haircare brands.
Justin Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit, accusing Lively, Reynolds, and others of civil extortion and defamation. He also connected the damages to lost acting opportunities and other hits to his image.
Where it All Began
Everything started in December 2024. Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment, which he later denied.
The actress also named several other producers, contractors, and publicists in her complaint, claiming they also had a part in damaging her reputation.
December 31st, 2024, brought both actors to legal action as they filed lawsuits against each other.
Baldoni’s was targeted at Lively, The New York Times, Ryan Reynolds, and a publicist. A judge later dismissed Baldoni’s countersuit in June 2025.
November 2025 brought more action, with Lively seeking more than $161 million in damages, as mentioned above.
Will a Trial Work?
The trial looms.
While the first date was delayed, a new start date is set for May 18, 2026. Jury selection is supposed to begin in April, and the trial is expected to last around a month.
But is the trial the best option? On the one hand, some say it’s the only way.
White commented that due to how drastically different each side of the story is, it would be “very hard for a judge to choose one side over the other, which makes sending the case to trial the most likely outcome.”
With so much information redacted and falling into the classic “he-said-she-said” cliché, the best bet for a solution is through a proper trial.
White finishes his explanation with a perfect summary:
“One side says certain things happened; the other says they didn’t or that they did happen but are being miscontrued and taken out of context. Whether something happened and what it meant are exactly the kinds of questions a jury is meant to resolve.”
Muddying the Waters
It doesn’t help that the two celebrities and their lawyers continue to muddy the waters. Between adding new lawsuits, new evidence, or other accusations, it isn’t clear which side is right and which is wrong.
Lively’s attorney claims the defendants are trying to “deny Blake Lively her day in court” while Baldoni’s fires back that all her grievances “were resolved during production, without the need for litigation.”
Plus, it doesn’t help that in January 2025, Blake and Reynolds asked the court to issue a protective order to silence Baldoni’s lawyer.
It truly is a situation of “what’s gonna happen next?”