Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni ‘reached a settlement deal’ & will no longer go to trial

Note: Blake Lively attended last night’s Met Gala solo (the photos in this post). She wore an archival Versace (from 2006) and she stepped out just a couple of hours after the big news was announced. When the settlement and statement came out Monday afternoon, I thought “oh, they’re trying to bury this right before the Met Gala.” Blake showing up to the gala makes it seem like she wanted this 18-month mess done with so she could attend the gala.

So, the year-and-a-half-long battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is over. The case will not go to trial this month, the parties have “settled” and released a joint statement. The terms of the settlement are unknown, which is unfortunate at this point, after all of the smears, lies and craziness. I was actually looking forward to seeing all of this play out in a trial, especially after the judge tossed out all of Blake’s sexual harassment claims against Baldoni one month ago. Once the cache of emails and texts to and from Blake started coming out earlier this year, you could really feel the mood shift. It was eye-opening, to say the least, to read all of the written evidence of a conspiracy on Blake’s side.

The legal battle between “It Ends With Us” co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni will no longer go to trial in May after they reached a settlement deal that they announced on Monday.

The two effectively ended their yearslong legal dispute after a court-ordered settlement conference last week. The terms of the settlement were not made public.

Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during the production of the 2024 movie “It Ends With Us,” which he directed. Lively has also alleged that Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer Studios, retaliated against her after she complained about alleged misconduct on the set of the film. Baldoni vehemently denied Lively’s claims.

Attorneys for Baldoni and Lively issued a joint statement on Monday.

“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,” Bryan Freedman, Ellyn Garofalo, Michael Gottlieb, and Esra Hudson said in a statement. “Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors — and all survivors — is a goal that we stand behind.”

The lawyers said they “acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard.”

“We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments. It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment,” the statement continued.

The settlement came a month after a federal judge tossed out most of Lively’s claims against Baldoni, including harassment, defamation and conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman allowed three of her claims to proceed to trial, including breach of contract and retaliation.

Baldoni also brought a defamation suit against The New York Times over an article headlined: “‘We Can Bury Anyone: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” Liman tossed out both suits last year.

The highly publicized case has reverberated through Hollywood, exposing text messages between A-listers and uncomfortably candid studio business conversations that normally remain behind closed doors. It also subjected Lively and Baldoni to the broader culture war around sexual harassment.

Lively’s private communications were unsealed as part of her suit against Baldoni — including messages with Reynolds and pop star Taylor Swift.

[From NBC News]

“We remain firmly committed to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments…” “Unproductive environments,” what a euphemism. While Blake’s case fell apart because all of the sexual harassment claims were tossed out, it felt like Baldoni and his side (including his publicist) still had many issues which needed to be worked out in the trial. As in, I can’t see Blake offering a financial settlement to make this go away after everything that’s happened, so what exactly IS the settlement?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.

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22 Responses to “Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni ‘reached a settlement deal’ & will no longer go to trial”

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  1. sparrow says:
    May 5, 2026 at 9:57 am

    Her dress was one of the best for me. Not in the loop with her case due to personal circs making me out of the loop with most things for the past months. So, apologies if my comment about her dress alone seems facile or flip.

  2. Jferber says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:02 am

    I read that the joint statement WAS the settlement and no money changed hands. Of course, this can be wrong. I think they both, especially Blake, wanted this to be over. And it is. She did look great in that gown.

  3. Becks1 says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:02 am

    Settlements like this are interesting because both sides can spin that statement to their own benefit. I’m seeing pro Blake accounts on social media insist that this is a huge win for Blake, and I’m seeing the same from pro Baldoni accounts (even though he wasn’t involved in it at this point.)

    My guess is Wayfarer paid something relatively minimal to Blake – maybe 500k – and I wouldn’t be surprised if both sides signed confidentiality agreements with a non disparagement clause or something similar. Basically i dont think we’re going to hear from either side about this, so it will all be speculation.

    I think the case highlights many aspects of sexual harassment – starting with what it actually IS – and ending with the idea of how a woman needs to be a perfect victim.

    This whole thing has been so incredibly messy and no one involved has ended up looking good here, so I’m not surprised it settled.

  4. Barbie1 says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:08 am

    I don’t like this at all. It’s a win for him. He got away with it and will go on a press victory tour and pretend he’s innocent.

    • sueinorleans says:
      May 5, 2026 at 11:09 am

      Exactly. The only good I can see coming out of this is, hopefully, he will not pull the same crap with women on his next film. Perhaps a faint hope. We shall see. Maybe the next woman who speaks out will be a more perfect victim.

  5. Jayna says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:11 am

    I can’t stand her or her smarmy husband. But the gown looks good on her.

  6. Miranda says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:12 am

    It seemed to me that there was weird, inappropriate, overly familiar behavior/messages on both sides. Ultimately, I ended up feeling for Blake because of how she caught a lot of shit since people already disliked her for various reasons. She didn’t get the benefit of the doubt. That said, neither of them comes out of this looking good, but I’m glad it’s over.

    This dress is so, so, so beautiful. Maybe one of my favorite Versaces of all time?! My one gripe is that it would’ve looked better if Blake wore her hair up. The fabric of the halter is almost the same color as her hair, and it kind of looks…off.

  7. Dizzy says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:23 am

    I dont like this at all. I don’t understand going to the world series of fashion and wearing something special edition barbie would wear. So strange.

    • sparrow says:
      May 5, 2026 at 10:35 am

      I love it but equally understand your sentiment ,Dizzy. It doesn’t seem wow, gala. I appreciate it as a standalone, out of context gown. I wonder if she wore it because it has a quaintness to it – meaning it projects a sense of frothy innocence rather than full on vamp, and thereby aligns with a wish to look innocent of all charges and out the other side as a winner. I’m sorry if this is a “that’s totally obvious” comment. I know nothing much of the court case or the people involved. Just surface stuff.

    • GAFFNEY says:
      May 5, 2026 at 10:39 am

      I’m with you @dizzy- most of the people here love Blake so hard they can’t see this beautiful ball gown is not on theme

    • mblates says:
      May 5, 2026 at 10:47 am

      i actually really love the gown. i think it’s beautifully constructed, and i like the pastels. although the comment above about special edition barbie kind of hits, ha! i think blake doesn’t use a professional stylist and it shows. the dress is lovely, but better finishing would have elevated the look. still wouldn’t have been on theme, but it wouldn’t look so basic on her.

    • Becks1 says:
      May 5, 2026 at 11:07 am

      I think the gown is beautiful. but I also think its not quite on point for last night, and that we’ve seen Blake do those big train gowns at the Met gala before – and do them better. This is a pretty look but at the end of the day its kind of bland to me.

  8. Harla says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:29 am

    This gown feels like one we’ve seen a 100 times on her, not interesting or “art” at all.

  9. Jferber says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:48 am

    Big Earl, the judge was cowardly about Blake’s sexual harassment suit. She was a contractor and not an employee? How convenient and how much I hate that. It reminds me of a woman who worked at ABC News who was denied medical insurance because she was a contractor and not an employee (on their say-so). She ended up going to Germany for untraditional treatment and died at 31 of breast cancer. And she had a one year old.

  10. TNA says:
    May 5, 2026 at 10:51 am

    I feel like the comments here indicate that many people are unfamiliar with this case, which is why I wish it actually would have gone trial so Baldoni would have been completely vindicated. There is no evidence that he sexually harassed her or launched a smear campaign against her. There is plenty of evidence that Blake repeatedly outright lied or distorted events, and that her main reasoning for doing so was creative control of the movie. Also, please revisit how she defines sexual harassment, which includes the idea that if she felt her input wasn’t taken seriously as a woman it should count as gender discrimination. It’s really sad to see people who lack a basic understanding of this case suggest that Baldoni was in the wrong, when the footage, audio and other evidence vindicates him.

    • Zao says:
      May 5, 2026 at 11:01 am

      Thanks but you are preaching to wrong crowd. The people here who are very proud of to see through sussex smear campaign failed to see how all the msm is biased towards Blake lively. Also it’s very interesting that wme protects Blake from behind the scenes and bad press but couldn’t protect meghan from bad press in atleast in usa. That’s show how white woman gets protected way more than poc.

      Many here didn’t read the court documents they read from msm which is clearly lying like in meghan case. But many here are very much like blake lively because she wears pretty dress that’s why they care about . She clearly lied and steal the movie.

    • sparrow says:
      May 5, 2026 at 11:01 am

      I appreciate your comment, TNA. As said above, I’ve been out of things for quite a while now, what with surgeries and recovery. The legal case and what’s been said on both sides has passed me by. There are comments about people loving Blake. I don’t really know anything about her. I love her dress here. But with what you’ve written, I’m going to read more when I feel better. I lack the familiarity you mention and therefore I fully intend to educate myself more. Thank you for great insights.

  11. Jferber says:
    May 5, 2026 at 11:01 am

    Becks1, I really appreciated your points about sexual harassment — both what it is and the need to be a perfect victim. The latter holds true for rape victims too.

    • Becks1 says:
      May 5, 2026 at 11:12 am

      Thanks. It really is a tricky situation in my mind because many of us have this mindset of “believe women” but that doesn’t mean that every situation is sexual harassment, even if a situation is toxic. And yeah Blake is not a perfect victim – I don’t think I’ve ever really been a fan, and that’s not due to Baldoni, unless he was running a smear campaign 10 years ago or whatever, lol. But that doesn’t mean that she’s not still a victim. So it can be difficult to parse out all the nuances in a case like this. Anyone who claims this completely vindicates Baldoni and Wayfarer is probably wrong, and anyone who thinks this vindicates Blake completely is also wrong. My guess is there was messy and bad behavior on both sides – settlement was always going to the most likely outcome here (that’s true for the vast majority of cases as it is.)

  12. kirk says:
    May 5, 2026 at 11:05 am

    Sounds like a loss to me. Was looking forward to getting explanation of how the “doofus director of my movie” wound up in that position after his company paid for the film option on Hoover’s book.

  13. Boxy Lady says:
    May 5, 2026 at 11:11 am

    I read a LOT about this case. Lots of briefs, filings, and unsealed texts and messages. Those texts and messages showed that Blake and Ryan were set before filming even began to try to hijack that film from Justin and also take away his purchased rights to the sequel. Some who were weren’t following the case closely think that the judge threw out Blake’s sexual harassment claims on the technicality that Blake was an independent contractor and not an employee. That’s true. BUT, the judge also went through each of her 10 sexual harassment claims and detailed why they would not hold up in court even if she hadn’t been an independent contractor. There was a very, very, very good chance that Blake was going to lose this case. It was in her best interest that she settled before it went to trial.