Judge formally ends Justin Baldoni’s $400-million countersuit against Blake Lively
A federal judge has officially shut down Justin Baldoni’s $400-million countersuit against Blake Lively — the latest development in a long and bitter legal feud that has shadowed their movie “It Ends With Us.”
Judge Lewis Liman entered the ruling on Friday after Baldoni and his company, Wayfarer Studios, missed an Oct. 17 deadline to revive their case. The judge had dismissed the lawsuit in June but left the door open for Baldoni to refile. When no amended complaint was submitted, Liman moved to close the case for good. Lively was the only party to respond, asking that the dismissal be made final while keeping her request for attorneys’ fees active — which the court granted.
Read more: Justin Baldoni’s tumultuous road to the center of a Hollywood scandal
The legal battle between the two began nearly a year earlier, when Lively filed a lawsuit in December 2024 accusing Baldoni of sexual misconduct and of waging a smear campaign after tensions on the set of “It Ends With Us,” the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. Baldoni, who directed and co-starred in the movie, denied the allegations and in January countersued Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane for defamation and extortion, seeking $400 million in damages.
In a separate filing, Baldoni also sued the New York Times for $250 million over its coverage of Lively’s claims. Liman dismissed both suits on June 9, ruling that Lively’s harassment allegations were legally protected under California’s Protecting Survivors From Weaponized Defamation Lawsuits Act (AB 933) — a law enacted in the wake of the #MeToo movement — and that Baldoni had not shown the defendants acted with “serious doubts” about the truth of her statements.
At the time of that June ruling, Lively’s attorneys called the decision “a total victory and a complete vindication.” Lively wrote on Instagram that she had “felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit” but was “more resolved than ever to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice.” Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, also in June rejected that framing, calling Lively’s declaration of victory “false” and insisting his client had been targeted by “false accusations.”
Reps for Baldoni and Wayfarer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By letting the appeal deadline pass, Baldoni effectively ended his own challenge to Lively’s legal protections under California’s survivor protection law, leaving the June dismissal and her earlier court victory fully intact.
Friday’s order makes the dismissal of Baldoni’s case final unless he appeals. Lively’s own lawsuit, the one that started the dispute, remains active and is scheduled for trial in March 2026. That case will determine whether her harassment and retaliation claims move forward to a jury, meaning the core of the dispute is still to be litigated next year.For now, only one side of the “It Ends With Us” legal battle has truly ended.
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