{"id":2356118,"date":"2026-04-02T23:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2356118"},"modified":"2026-04-02T23:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:24:52","slug":"blake-lively-reacts-to-bombshell-ruling-in-justin-baldoni-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/blake-lively-reacts-to-bombshell-ruling-in-justin-baldoni-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Blake Lively reacts to bombshell ruling in Justin Baldoni case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Blake Lively is \u201clooking forward\u201d to facing Justin Baldoni in court during their upcoming trial \u2014 despite all but three of her claims <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/04\/02\/celebrity-news\/blake-lively-dealt-devastating-blow-in-ongoing-justin-baldoni-harassment-lawsuit\/\">being dismissed on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively\u2019s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial,\u201d Sigrid\u00a0McCawley, a member of Lively\u2019s legal team, told Page Six in a statement on Thursday. <\/p>\n<p>McCawley added that for Lively, \u201cthe greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they\u2019ve targeted,\u201d and said the \u201cGossip Girl\u201d alum \u201clooks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Blake Lively reacted to all but three of her claims against Justin Baldoni being thrown out on Thursday. She\u2019s seen above outside court in February.  <span class=\"credit\">Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer on Lively\u2019s legal team, said the \u201cGossip Girl\u201d alum \u201clooks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.\u201d She\u2019s pictured above with Baldoni on the set of \u201cIt Ends With Us.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>The attorney concluded by clarifying, \u201cSexual harassment isn\u2019t going forward not because the defendants did nothing wrong but because the court determined Blake Lively was an independent contractor, not an employee.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following the news on Thursday, in which a judge dismissed all of Lively\u2019s sexual harassment claims \u2014 but allowed her claims of breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting in retaliation to proceed \u2014 attorneys for Baldoni also spoke out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re very pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel,\u201d Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach told Page Six in a statement. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese 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.\u201d <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lawyers for Baldoni said they were \u201cvery pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants.\u201d Baldoni and Lively are pictured above on the set of \u201cIt Ends With Us.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Christopher Peterson \/ SplashNews.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Baldoni\u2019s lawyers called the allegations \u201cvery serious,\u201d and said they are \u201cgrateful to the Court.\u201d Baldoni and his wife, Emily Baldoni, are seen outside court in February.   <span class=\"credit\">Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>They concluded, \u201cWhat\u2019s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense to the remaining claims in court.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>After months of rumored tension amid promotional events for \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d \u2014 which Baldoni directed and Lively co-starred in \u2014  Lively filed a complaint\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2024\/12\/21\/celebrity-news\/blake-lively-sues-justin-baldoni-for-sexual-harassment-on-it-ends-with-us-set\/\">accusing Baldoni for on-set sexual harassment<\/a>\u00a0 and retaliation in December 2024.  <\/p>\n<p>She subsequently<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2024\/12\/31\/celebrity-news\/blake-lively-sues-justin-baldoni-over-it-ends-with-us-feud\/\"> sued Baldoni<\/a> the same month, claiming the director <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2025\/11\/06\/celebrity-news\/blake-lively-claims-161-million-in-damages-due-to-it-ends-with-us-smear-campaign\/\">owed her damages<\/a> of at least $161 million allegedly due to a coordinated smear campaign as the domestic-violence themed movie hit theaters. <\/p>\n<p>Baldoni consistently denied all allegations and launched a $400 million countersuit against Lively and her <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/03\/celebrity-news\/ryan-reynolds-ex-scarlett-johansson-gets-dragged-into-blake-lively-justin-baldonis-case\/\">husband Ryan Reynolds<\/a>, which was <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2025\/06\/09\/celebrity-news\/judge-tosses-justin-baldonis-400m-lawsuit-against-blake-lively-ryan-reynolds\/\">tossed by the judge<\/a> last June. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Lively (on-set with Baldoni in 2024) sued the director in January 2025 for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation.  <span class=\"credit\">GC Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Baldoni (on set with Lively) has denied all allegations.  <span class=\"credit\">GC Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bryan Freedman, an attorney for Baldoni, told Page Six at the time that he and Baldoni \u201cremain fully committed to pursuing the truth through every legal and factual avenue available\u201d and noted that they were \u201cfocusing on Ms. Lively\u2019s claims.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The co-stars <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/11\/celebrity-news\/blake-lively-and-justin-baldoni-arrive-at-nyc-court-ahead-of-huge-legal-showdown\/\">faced each other in a Manhattan court<\/a> on February 11 for a settlement conference, which was ultimately <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/11\/celebrity-news\/justin-baldonis-lawyer-blake-lively-settlement-talk-unsuccessful\/\">labeled \u201cunsuccessful\u201d<\/a> by Freedman in comments to Deadline. Baldoni <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/12\/celebrity-news\/justin-baldoni-arrives-at-court-after-unsuccessful-settlement-talk-with-blake-lively\/\">returned to court again the next day,<\/a> though Lively did not appear to attend. <\/p>\n<p>As the drama escalated, a numbers of A-list celebrities \u2014 including Lively\u2019s former BFF Taylor Swift and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/03\/celebrity-news\/ryan-reynolds-ex-scarlett-johansson-gets-dragged-into-blake-lively-justin-baldonis-case\/\">Reynolds\u2019 ex-wife Scarlett Johansson<\/a>, among others, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/01\/14\/entertainment\/justin-baldoni-attempts-to-expose-taylor-swift-in-messy-blake-lively-lawsuit\/\">appeared in a deluge of unsealed documents<\/a> earlier this year. <\/p>\n<p>Baldoni and Lively\u2019s trial date is set for May 18.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blake Lively is \u201clooking forward\u201d to facing Justin Baldoni in court during their upcoming trial \u2014 despite all but three of her claims being dismissed on Thursday. \u201cThis case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively\u2019s reputation because she stood [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2356119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[25078,350799,24003,346815,274219,409259,21912,314353,21913],"class_list":["post-2356118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-blake-lively","tag-celebrity-lawsuits","tag-celebrity-news","tag-court","tag-justin-baldoni","tag-lawyers","tag-movies","tag-sexual-harassment","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Blake-Lively-reacts-to-bombshell-ruling-in-Justin-Baldoni-case.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2356118"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2356120,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356118\/revisions\/2356120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2356119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2356118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2356118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}