It Ends With…Anticlimax

On Halloween, Justin Baldoni's lawsuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist was dismissed.

By Audra Heinrichs  |  November 3, 2025 | 12:57pm
Photos: Getty Images CelebritiesNews
It Ends With…Anticlimax

Well, Blake Lively had an especially happy Halloween this year!

On Friday, Justin Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against his It Ends With Us co-star-cum-enemy, Blake Lively, was formally dismissed by a judge. U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman signed his name to a new order ruling Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios co-plaintiffs failed to file a further amended complaint after the court dismissed their case in June.

According to documents, Liman stated that he’d contacted all parties on October 17 and advised that he’d soon file a final judgment, which would effectively conclude Baldoni’s case. However, Baldoni and the other plaintiffs did not respond. Lively, on the other hand, was the only one to reply. In her filing, she requested that Liman put forth his final ruling.

Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist suffered its first blow in June. Over the summer, Liman tossed out the suit (which alleged extortion and defamation), in addition to Baldoni’s $250 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. At the time, Lively addressed the matter via her Instagram stories.

“Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us,” she wrote. “While the suit against me was defeated, so many don’t have the resources to fight back.” Lively further added that she was “more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.”

Meanwhile, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, claimed at the time that Lively’s “predictable declaration of victory is false” and that they planned to “march forward” with “the facts on our side.” He added: “While the court dismissed the defamation related claims, the court has invited us to amend four out of the seven claims against Ms. Lively, which will showcase additional evidence and refined allegations.”

While Baldoni’s suit is no longer, Lively’s original lawsuit remains ongoing. In December 2024, Lively sued Baldoni, his film studio, Wayfarer, and his publicists, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, for sexual harassment and orchestrating a smear campaign against her. Lively accused Baldoni of varying instances of misconduct that include initiating conversations with her about past sexual encounters in which consent wasn’t ensured, fat-shaming, repeatedly violating her privacy, and attempting to “destroy” her career. “As a direct, foreseeable, and proximate result of this unlawful discriminatory conduct” by the defendants, Lively claimed that she “suffered, and continues to suffer, substantial damages.”

Baldoni’s attorneys have yet to comment on the suit’s dismissal.

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