Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni refuse court’s mediation attempt as ‘It Ends With Us’ battle rages on
They agree to disagree.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s respective legal teams filed a joint letter in New York Thursday stating that they would like to be exempt from the district court’s mediation program.
In the letter written to Judge Lewis J. Liman and obtained by Page Six, the parties stated they “agreed that settlement discussions would be premature” during a conference held on Jan. 30.
Lively and Baldoni’s legal counsels said they then discussed the matter further on Feb. 7, per the filing, and agreed that a mediation, as well as “Discovery Protocols” — which is reportedly done in employment cases to streamline the initial information exchange — were deemed “inappropriate for this case.”
The lawyers argued in the letter that there is “good cause” for their respective parties to be exempt before noting that Lively also plans to file an “amended complaint imminently.”
Judge Liman granted the motion for exemption from mediation and discovery protocols on Thursday.
It’s unclear when exactly Lively, 37, plans to file her amended complaint, but her team is already working on compiling new data to further prove their case.
She has subpoenaed Baldoni’s text messages to “expose the people, tactics, and methods that have worked to ‘destroy’ and ‘bury’ her reputation and family over the past year,” her attorneys told Page Six.
Lively is suing her former “It Ends With Us” co-star for alleged sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and lost wages.
She has alleged that Baldoni, 41, made her feel uncomfortable during their time filming the 2024 romance drama, claiming he allegedly asked about her weight to an on-set trainer, inquired about her “dead father,” walked in on her while breastfeeding, and freely spoke about his sexual conquests and porn addiction.
The “Gossip Girl” alum also claimed the “Jane the Virgin” actor hired a PR crisis manager to launch a smear campaign against her to “destroy” her reputation, and cited a text from one of his publicists that said they can “bury” anyone.
Baldoni has denied any wrongdoing and his attorney, Bryan Freedman, has said that Lively’s suit was “another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
The actor-director has since filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and the couple’s publicist, Leslie Sloane, for defamation and extortion in response to their accusations.
He has also released raw behind-the-scenes footage and private text messages via a website to further prove how many of Lively’s claims were allegedly distorted to paint a different narrative of what happened.
The crisis PR firm that Baldoni hired has also filed their own lawsuit against Lively, claiming the “Age of Adeline” star caused them “millions of dollars in reputational harm.”
Lively has said via her team that Baldoni’s lawsuit “is another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
They added, “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim.”
The cases have been consolidated and a trial date has been set for March, 9, 2026.
A pre-trial conference took place earlier this month, in which Freedman said Baldoni has been “devastated financially and emotionally” by the ongoing legal feud, which prompted Lively’s lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, to claim the former’s “retaliation campaign” has been “devastating” for his client, as well.
