Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are heading to court. Here's everything you need to know

When Blake Lively filed her lawsuit against her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni and his production company, it sent shockwaves across Hollywood.

Not only did Lively accuse Baldoni of sexual harassment, she also alleged she had been the victim of a targeted smear campaign.

After more than a year of acrimonious litigation, the case is now limited to these ​retaliation claims against Baldoni's production company Wayfarer after the sexual harassment claims were dimissed.

Baldoni and some of his team and PR experts, apparently concerned Lively might go public with claims about alleged inappropriate behaviour on set, went on the offensive to ruin her reputation, the actress said in her legal complaint.

The filmmaker counters that he resolved Lively's concerns as soon as she raised them, and that he was entitled ⁠to ​hire a crisis management firm after she began disparaging him ​publicly.

Thousands of pages of court documents have been filed by parties on all sides. The case has shone a spotlight on the darker corners of the world of entertainment, drawing other stars into the headlines and raising questions about power, influence and gender dynamics in Hollywood.

Despite recent court hearings to arrange a potential settlement, there has been no agreement - meaning the case is now set to go to trial. Here is everything you need to know.

How it started

First of all, a short recap. Lively and Baldoni starred together in It Ends With Us, an adaptation of the best-selling 2016 Colleen Hoover novel, and Baldoni also directed the movie.

The film, which starts as a romance but goes on to explore issues of domestic violence and emotional abuse, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations, bringing in $50m during its opening weekend in North America.

However, the release was shrouded by reports of discord on set and the co-stars did not promote the film together, which quickly led to online speculation about a suspected rift.

Before this film, Lively was best known for the TV series Gossip Girl, which she starred in from 2007 to 2012, as well as films including The Town and The Shallows. She is married to Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds and the couple have four children.

Baldoni starred in the TV comedy Jane The Virgin, directed the 2019 film Five Feet Apart, and wrote Man Enough, a book challenging traditional notions of masculinity. His wife, Emily Baldoni, is also an actress and the couple have two children.

Lively's lawsuit

At the end of December 2024, Lively filed a 93-page legal complaint at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In it, the actress said she raised Baldoni's alleged inappropriate behaviour during production of the film.

The legal complaint was brought against Baldoni, along with his production company Wayfarer Studios, and a group of producers and publicists, accusing them of "a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others, from speaking out about the hostile environment" on set.

According to Lively's complaint, the plan included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign, and place news stories that were critical of her.

Details of the actress's allegations were first made public in an article in The New York Times.

Baldoni's response

Baldoni sued The New York Times for libel, accusing them of accepting a "self-serving narrative" by Lively, and then countersued the actress and her husband, accusing them of defamation and extortion.

He sought at least $250m in damages in the case against the newspaper and at least $400m in damages in his case against Lively.

These cases were thrown out by New York district court judge Lewis Liman in June 2025, and formally closed in November 2025.

Judge Liman ruled that Baldoni could not sue Lively for defamation over claims she made in her legal claim, because allegations made in a lawsuit are exempt from libel claims. Liman also ruled that claims the actress stole creative control of the film did not count as extortion.

Baldoni has strongly denied all the allegations against him.

Lively filed an amended legal complaint of 149 pages, her second amendment, in July.

Majority of Lively's claims also dismissed

In April, Judge Liman made a ruling on whether or not Lively's claims could go to trial. In a 152-page court order, he dismissed the majority of her claims, including those of sexual harassment - in part because she was an independent contractor when working on the film, not an employee.

Writing about one specific allegation, the judge said: "At least in isolation, the conduct was directed to Lively's character rather than to Lively herself. Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment."

However, the judge has allowed some claims to go to trial - namely, Lively will be able to try to convince jurors that Wayfarer Studios retaliated against her after she raised alleged ​misconduct on the movie set.

The judge said jurors could consider whether the defendants "impermissibly and materially altered" Lively's career prospects, through what she called a smear campaign after Baldoni hired public relations and crisis ​management specialists.

What is astroturfing?

You may have heard the word "astroturfing" used in relation to Lively's retaliation claim, as she does herself in her court filings.

Astroturfing is the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, or in the media, that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group, according to the Cambridge Dictionary. This is as a way to make it seem that a product, policy, opinion etc is very popular or has a lot of public support.

Basically, it is a way of manipulating public opinion by creating the illusion of grassroots support - or grassroots backlash.

In a statement after the judge's order, Lively's attorney Sigrid McCawley said the actress "looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it become easier to detect and fight".

She added: "This case has always been and will remain focused on the devasting retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively's reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial."

Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach, two of Baldoni's attorneys, said they were "pleased" Judge Liman dismissed the sexual harassment claims.

"These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the court for its careful review of the facts, law and voluminous evidence that was provided," Shapiro and Bach said. "What's left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defence to the remaining claims in court."

What does Taylor Swift have to do with the case?

In January, messages and emails sent by Lively, including exchanges with Taylor Swift, a longtime friend, were made by public in legal filings by Baldoni's lawyers.

They argue the messages show Lively was strategically manipulating Baldoni's public image by leveraging connections with her powerful and famous friends.

In the messages, the friends spoke about the use of Swift's song My Tears Ricochet in the It Ends With Us trailer, as well as their friendship and the effect the case might have been having on it.

Sigrid McCawley, another attorney for Lively, told reporters in January that Lively had done "everything she can to protect her friends from not being brought into" the case.

What happens now?

The trial is due to begin on 18 May and both Lively and Baldoni are expected to testify.

While some court cases in the US are filmed, this case is unlikely to be televised as it is taking place in a federal court, where cameras are not allowed, rather than a district court.

A pretrial order, filed earlier in April, says Lively is seeking compensatory damages of between $142m and $297m.

Baldoni's lawyers say any public relations efforts made around the release of the film are "not actionable as retaliation, because they were undertaken as reasonable defensive measures in response to Lively's own efforts to destroy defendants' reputations and careers".

(c) Sky News 2026: Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are heading to court. Here's everything you need to know