Attorneys for US actress Blake Likely were back in front of a New York judge on Monday to demand legal fees and damages from “It Ends with Us” co-star Justin Baldoni, after a settlement was reached last month in their years-long legal battle.
The 38-year-old actress’s legal team argued that the defamation lawsuit brought against her by Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, was a retaliatory move prohibited by California law.
Lawyers for Baldoni rejected the claim.
AFP was not immediately able to obtain details regarding the sum being sought by Lively.
Lively filed her first complaint against Baldoni in December 2024, alleging the actor, who also directed the film, had spoken inappropriately about his sex life and sought to alter the film to include sex scenes that were not in the script.
The actress, who came to fame on the television series “Gossip Girl,” said Baldoni orchestrated a PR and social media campaign to ruin Lively’s reputation.
Baldoni and his studio Wayfarer had countersued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds with claims of extortion and defamation, but a judge dismissed those claims last year.
Wayfarer previously insisted that neither the studio, its executives, nor its PR team did anything to retaliate against Lively.
The federal judge handling the case, Lewis Liman, also dismissed some of Lively’s claims but upheld her allegations of retaliation.
The full terms of the out-of-court settlement reached between the two parties have not been publicly disclosed.
Based on a best-selling novel by the US writer Colleen Hoover, “It Ends with Us” made more than $350 million at the box office in 2024, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.
