Actor and director Justin Baldoni’s $400 million extortion and defamation lawsuit against his co-star Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds has been abruptly closed by a judge.
This sudden terminus comes after Baldoni missed a court-imposed deadline to amend his claims: failure to take the opportunity to revive the case automatically leads to an end of the lawsuit.
In June, the court found that Baldoni’s defamation allegation lacked merit. This would have been his sole opportunity to appeal that. However, he still retains the right to appeal the judgment once the court resolves motions related to Lively’s request to recuperate legal fees — though so far Lively’s request has been approved. Moreover, Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against Baldoni remains ongoing in Manhattan federal court.
This case for defamation is not to be confused with the sexual harassment trial, which will begin in 2026.
The spat between Baldoni and the Lively-Reynolds family, which began in January, has been one of Hollywood’s most shocking and heated public battles.
This lawsuit which just closed was Baldoni’s “counterattack” to Lively’s December 2024 lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company, in which she accused him of sexual harassment during the production of It Ends With Us.
Blake Lively alleged that Justin Baldoni engaged in “disturbing” conduct on set, such as when he “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear down her neck,” reportedly saying, “It smells so good”, as well as attempting to pressure Lively into and explicit sex scene and making invasive comments about her private life with Ryan Reynolds.
A spokesperson for the New York Times commented: “We are grateful to the court for seeing the lawsuit for what it was: a meritless attempt to stifle honest reporting.”
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