Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Justin Baldoni. Getty Images(3)
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ have been under a microscope for the past two months due to their lawsuits involving Justin Baldoni.
“Blake is very stressed, upset, and just wants all of this to be done,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly of how Lively, 37, is coping amid the ongoing legal disputes with her It Ends With Us costar.
Reynolds, meanwhile, is “more confident that the truth will prevail in court,” the insider says, noting that the Deadpool actor, 48, “has been consoling” his wife throughout the leadup to the trials.
The couple, who tied the knot in 2012, have also tried to take time away from their legal issues by recently bringing their children on a “family beach vacation,” the source adds. (Reynolds and Lively share three daughters, James, 10, Inez, 8, and Betty, 5, and son Olin, 2.)
Lively and Baldoni, 41, first raised eyebrows in August 2024 when rumors of a rift between the pair surfaced as they promoted their movie, It Ends With Us, separately.
After staying quiet about their dynamic for months, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios in December 2024 for alleged sexual harassment during their time on set. Details of the alleged misconduct were initially outlined in a New York Times article and later obtained by Us.
In the court documents, Lively accused Baldoni of launching a “social manipulation” campaign against her to try and “destroy” her reputation. She claimed that she wasn’t the only It Ends With Us star to complain about Baldoni, who played Ryle in the film and served as director.
At the time, Baldoni denied all the allegations against him. Days later, he launched a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times — along with nine other plaintiffs — for its coverage of Lively’s accusations. At the time, the outlet told Us that it was planning to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
UPDATE 1/16/25 at 12:43 p.m. ET: Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios filed a $400 million lawsuit against It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, on Thursday, January 16. In the 179-page filing obtained by Us Weekly, Baldoni claimed that Lively was “determined” to make him a “real-life villain in her story.” […]
Us confirmed in December 2024 that Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni in a New York federal court that same day. This filing mirrored her earlier allegations, which were submitted to the California Civil Rights Department.
Lively — who played the lead Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us and was an executive producer on the project — also named publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel in the lawsuit, along with with Wayfarer Studios for their part in the alleged social media attack on her character.
In her lawsuit, Lively claimed that she suffered alleged sexual harassment and retaliation at the hands of Baldoni, alleging there was a breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress and an invasion of privacy and lost wages. Baldoni has continued to deny the claims.
In January, Baldoni filed his own lawsuit against Lively, her publicist Leslie Sloane, and her husband, Reynolds. He is seeking $400 million in damages after accusing the trio of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and other claims.
Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman told Us in a statement at the time that his client’s lawsuit “is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media.”
Lively’s legal team, however, told Us response that Baldoni’s filing was an attempt to twist the narrative. “The strategy of attacking the woman is desperate, it does not refute the evidence in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and it will fail,” her attorneys said at the time.
Justin Baldoni initially appeared to have nothing but positive things to say about his It Ends with Us costar, Blake Lively, as reports of an on set feud continue circulating online. The drama officially hit theaters in August 2024, and Baldoni, who both directed and starred opposite Lively, has heaped praise on his onscreen partner. […]
In order to prove his innocence, Baldoni’s camp later released a video of the two actors slow dancing during an intimate scene from set. In the clip, the pair could be heard speaking out of character, which Baldoni’s team wanted to show in hopes it would strengthen their case.
Toward the end of January, a nearly seven-minute voice memo apology that Baldoni sent to Lively at 2 a.m. in the morning was released. It pertained to the actors’ dispute over a script change to the movie’s rooftop scene, in which Lively enlisted Reynolds and pal Taylor Swift’s help.
Lively and Reynolds filed a gag order request for Baldoni’s attorney in January ahead of his team launching a website that allegedly supports Baldoni’s allegations against the actress.
Justin Baldoni has escalated his legal battle against his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. In a series of text messages released by the director on Saturday, February 1 via his new website, thelawsuitinfo.com, Reynolds, 48, allegedly referred to Baldoni, 41, as a “stand up person.” The texts were […]
A pre-trial hearing on the subject took place on Monday, February 3, which both Lively and Baldoni’s lawyers attended. Federal judge Lewis J. Liman told Lively’s team that they aren’t going to be the one “who chooses who takes Ms. Lively’s deposition” after she and Reynolds allegedly objected to being deposed by Baldoni’s attorney.
Baldoni’s team was also reprimanded for their website, which tells readers they can read a “timeline of relevant events.” The judge indicated that Baldoni’s timeline was likely to be stricken from the record, saying, “You can’t just attach a factual narrative” to a complaint.
Following the hearing, Baldoni’s team told Us in a statement, “Our clients are devastated and want to move the case along as quickly as possible. We just couldn’t be more pleased with how the case was handled today, how it was managed. We’re going to move as quickly as we possibly can and prove our innocence, in a world where sometimes people judge you before they give you a chance. And we’re going to change that.”
Lively and Baldoni’s larger trial is set to begin on March 9, 2026, but the judge said on Monday that it could be moved up if the complaints continue to be “litigated in the press,” per Deadline.
