Blake Lively’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni isn’t over, even as her absence from Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding on July 3 at NYC’s Madison Square Garden continues to fuel speculation.
Not Letting Go
Just days before Swift and Kelce tied the knot in New York City reportedly without Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds on the guest list, the actress asked a federal judge to make her former “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni pay more than $8 million in legal fees and litigation costs.
Lively’s request comes after a judge dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million defamation counterclaim against her last fall and follows the pair’s recent closed-door settlement in their long-running legal battle stemming from the 2024 film “It Ends With Us.”
According to court filings, Lively is seeking $7.49 million in attorneys’ fees and another $539,514 in litigation expenses. Her legal team argues Baldoni’s lawsuit was intended to punish her after she accused him of sexual harassment and retaliation during production of the film.
Baldoni has repeatedly denied the allegations.
In the filing, Lively’s attorneys argue the high-profile case required extensive legal work because of intense media scrutiny and the production of thousands of documents during discovery.
“Those considering using a lawsuit as a weapon of intimidation have been put on notice that there are consequences for doing so,” Lively’s attorneys, Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, said in a statement.
Judge Lewis J. Liman has ordered Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, to respond to Lively’s request by July 13 before deciding whether to award the fees.
The legal filing arrives as fans continue to speculate about Lively’s once-close friendship with Taylor Swift.
Lively and Reynolds were noticeably absent from both Swift and Travis Kelce’s rehearsal dinner and wedding celebration, despite years of being part of the singer’s inner circle. Instead.
Reports that the friendship had soured began surfacing in 2025 after Swift was pulled into Lively’s legal dispute with Baldoni. Swift was subpoenaed as a witness during the case, and private text messages between the two women were later unsealed.
