Nearly two years after high-profile legal conflict erupted between It Ends With Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, and just months after the pair reached a last-minute settlement to avoid a public civil trial, Justin Baldoni and his wife Emily have stepped into the public eye for the first time to share their experience of the bitter dispute. Their emotional, nearly five-minute video message, posted to Instagram on Wednesday, marked the first public remarks the couple has made since Lively first filed suit against Baldoni and his production banner Wayfarer Studios in December 2024.
The legal drama that roiled the promotion of the 2024 film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel began when Lively brought claims against Baldoni alleging on-set sexual harassment and a subsequent retaliatory smear campaign after she raised concerns about working conditions. Baldoni quickly fired back with a $400 million counter-suit against Lively and her husband, A-list actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing the pair of defamation and extortion.
The case moved through the U.S. District Court in New York for months before Judge Lewis Liman issued a key ruling that dismissed the vast majority of claims from both sides. Liman tossed out 10 of Lively’s 13 claims, including her sexual harassment allegations, ruling that under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Lively could not pursue those claims as an independent contractor rather than a formal employee of the production. The judge also dismissed Baldoni’s entire counter-suit in full.
Less than two weeks before the scheduled start of the remaining civil trial, the two parties reached a confidential settlement on the handful of remaining claims, which included breach of contract and Lively’s core retaliation allegations. In the aftermath of the settlement, Lively noted that filing the lawsuit had never been her desired outcome, but argued that moving forward with the case had drawn critical attention to the need for safe, respectful work environments on film sets. “I brought this case because of the pervasive RETALIATION I faced, and continue to, for privately and professionally asking for a safe working environment for myself and others,” she stated in a post-settlement comment. The BBC has confirmed it reached out to Lively’s legal team for additional comment ahead of the Baldonis’ recent video release, and has not yet received a response.
In their Wednesday video, the Baldonis smiled and chuckled through their remarks as they opened up about the lasting toll the two-year legal battle has taken on their family. Justin Baldoni acknowledged that the couple has refrained from speaking publicly until now not for lack of things to say, but because of the deep trauma the dispute has inflicted on their household. “We have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it’s not because we haven’t had anything to say,” he explained. “Because Lord knows we have.”
Emily Baldoni expanded on that, noting that the whole family had worked through significant pain to reach this point, and that the resolution of the legal case felt like the appropriate time to break their silence. “There has been a lot of trauma for us to move through as a family, which also makes it hard to speak,” she said. Echoing her husband’s framing, she added that the facts of the case had already been laid out in court, and the couple was ready to share their perspective. “The truth and the facts have spoken for themselves and here we are,” she said. She also voiced the couple’s frustration that the dispute had been framed as a public fight for gender equity, saying: “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.”
Despite the years of conflict and public scrutiny, the Baldoni ended their message on a note of gratitude for the support they have received from loved ones and allies throughout the process, saying their family is now in a period of healing. Emily Baldoni said the couple felt “immense gratitude” for the people who had stood by them, and Justin Baldoni closed the video by affirming: “We feel so loved.”