After a year and a half-long legal battle, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have agreed to settle their dispute. This agreement only happened weeks before jury selection for the case was about to begin. On May 4th, the It Ends With Us leads confirmed the settlement in the Lively breach-of-contract and retaliation lawsuit, but specific details were left out. A joint statement was put out by both parties’ attorneys, reading,
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. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors – and all survivors – is a goal that we stand behind. We 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 online.
While this unspecified deal allows Lively and Baldoni to skirt around a very public trial, their lawsuit battle has already captivated Hollywood when it began in 2024 as Lively sued Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer for “sexual harassment.” Furthermore, she accused the filmmaker and his team of “marshaling a plan to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about misconduct on the set of the movie.” Baldoni filed this suit, along with a $400 million countersuit of his own, accusing Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, of orchestrating a smear campaign against him.
This settlement also comes a month after U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman dismissed Lively’s claims of sexual harassment due to jurisdiction and employment. Liman states that the Gossip Girl actress “sued under California law, the alleged misconduct took place as they filmed in New Jersey,” and that the facts of the case point to Lively being an “independent contractor” rather than an employee of Baldoni, meaning she could not sue on the grounds of “violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.” Liman, however, allowed three of her original 13 claims to go to trial: retaliation, aiding and abetting in retaliation, and breach of contract. Liman wrote in the order issued last month,
Certain conduct at least arguably crossed the line. There are limits to the response that the accused can make in response to claims of harassment. There comes a point where the accused stops simply defending him or herself and starts taking action that a reasonable jury could view as retaliation for the fact that the accuser had the temerity to make the accusations.
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