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It hasn’t ended with either of them just yet.
Justin Baldoni, the star and director of the film It Ends With Us, says he can finally speak out about the bitter feud between him and his co-star Blake Lively.
In a nearly five-minute video posted on his official Instagram account on Thursday, Baldoni and wife Emily Baldoni expressed “gratitude” to fans for supporting him.
He described how the couple is “healing” after going through “something traumatic,” referring to the acrimonious legal battles between him and Lively.
“What I will say is that there have been so many painful things that have been spoken into existence over the last couple years,” he said.
“And that created so much noise, and we didn’t want to add to the noise, so we just wanted to let the justice system run its course, and the truth and the facts have spoken for themselves.”
The pair described the “injustice” they feel they have experienced.
“We’ve had to wrestle with so many things and try to understand so many things, like how could something like this even happen? Let alone disguised as a fight for women,” Emily Baldoni said.
Harassment claims and ‘smear’ campaigns
Lively, wife of Vancouver-born Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds, accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during the film’s production and alleged he conducted a co-ordinated attack on her reputation, suing him and his Wayfarer Studios production company in a $250-million US defamation suit.
That was just hours after Baldoni, now 42, filed a $400-million libel suit against the now 38-year-old actress, Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane and the New York Times, which published details of Lively’s claims of an alleged smear campaign in a December 2024 article.
A New York judge dismissed Baldoni’s suit in June 2025; the same judge tossed out Lively’s sexual harassment claim in April of this year.
Both sides agreed to settle their civil case in May — just two weeks before going to trial.
In a joint statement issued through lawyers following the civil case settlement, Lively and Baldoni said: “It is our sincere hope that this brings closure and allows all involved to move forward constructively and in peace, including a respectful environment online.”
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Lively, however, did not receive compensation in the settlement but was awarded legal fees, but not damages, under California law.
She’s now seeking $8 million in legal costs from Baldoni, according to a claim her lawyers filed in court on June 30.
It Ends With Us, based on the 2016 novel by U.S. author Colleen Hoover, centres on the abusive relationship between a florist, played by Lively, and a neurosurgeon, played by Baldoni.
It wound up being a box office hit, grossing $351 million US (nearly $500 million Cdn) worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, making it the 20th highest grossing film of 2024.
Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud15:16It Ends With Us and the Colleen Hoover fandom
The Baldonis insist they have “so much more to say” but will do so when the time comes.
For her part, Lively has yet to put out any reaction to the Baldonis video. Her most recent social media post regarding the legal fight came after the dismissal of her sexual harassment claim.
“The physical pain form digital violence is very real. It’s abuse,” she wrote in a statement posted on Instagram on April 6.
“If you’re looking, my claims won’t be the first or last time you see examples of the extreme dangers of retaliation or digital warfare. And it often won’t be directed at celebrities or those who may [be] able to speak up.”
Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of trying to ‘destroy’ her reputation after she complained about sexual harassment during the filming. An attorney for Baldoni calls the claims ‘categorically false.’
