Blake Lively Seeks Damages From Justin Baldoni Following Court Settlement

Blake Lively is taking Justin Baldoni back to court.

The Gossip Girl alum, 38, returned to court on Monday, June 1, seeking damages from the director, 42, over the defamation case he filed against her.

Despite a judge throwing the case out — and the former It Ends With Us co-stars settling the sexual harassment lawsuit Lively filed against Baldoni — the actress wants him to pay her legal fees, along with triple damages and punitive damages, per Daily Mail.

Trouble between the two began on the set of the movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover‘s best-selling book. After the film’s release, Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of “unprofessional” behavior on set.

The New York Times published an investigation in December 2024 detailing Lively’s list of allegations against her co-star. Baldoni claimed, in a lawsuit against the Times filed later that month, that the outlet “cherry-picked’ and altered communications” in order to deliberately mislead. That lawsuit was dismissed in June 2025 and, as Star previously reported, the Times sued Baldoni’s production company in September 2025 for compensatory and punitive damages in the amount of $150,000.

Baldoni and Lively went back and forth with accusations of sexual harassment, defamation, and retaliation. 

In June 2025, the Jane the Virgin star’s lawsuit against Lively was dismissed by a judge. The judge noted that Baldoni’s legal team could still amend the claims for breach of implied covenant and tortious interference with contract. However, Baldoni and his team failed to amend the claims by the given deadline, and the judge officially ended the suit in October.

The following April, the same judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims against Baldoni, including sexual harassment, defamation and conspiracy.

Baldoni and Lively reached an undisclosed settlement earlier this month, two weeks before their trial was scheduled to begin.

According to People, the settlement agreement says that the actress can still pursue legal fees and damages against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios. Baldoni and the Wayfarer parties reportedly “irrevocably” waived an appeal in the settlement agreement.