Blake Lively Wins Settlement, Now Seeks Major Damages

When Blake Lively settled her legal battle with Justin Baldoni in early May, it looked like the It Ends With Us dispute was finally headed toward closure. But the actress isn’t done yet—she’s now pushing the court to award her substantial damages for what her legal team calls Baldoni’s“retaliatory defamation action.”

In a filing obtained by Us Weekly on May 7, Lively requested compensation across three fronts: her attorneys’fees and costs, treble damages for the harm caused by the defendants’defamation claims, and punitive damages designed to send a message. The language in the court documents is pointed. Her team argues that by settling and waiving their right to appeal, Baldoni and the other defendants have essentially admitted personal liability for abusing the legal system to silence and intimidate her. In their statement to Us, her attorneys Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson called it“a resounding victory for Blake Lively”and noted that the settlement effectively ends what they describe as the defendants’false narrative that Lively“fabricated”claims of sexual harassment and retaliation.

The context here matters. Lively sued Baldoni in December 2024 after alleging she faced retaliation for coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against him. Baldoni denied everything and countersued, but a judge dismissed his lawsuit against her in June 2025. Then in April, another legal setback—most of her claims against Baldoni, including defamation, harassment, and conspiracy allegations, were ordered dismissed by the court. With jury selection set to begin on May 18, a settlement suddenly emerged, preventing a full trial.

The timing of the settlement itself—announced just before the 2026 Met Gala—added another layer. While both sides issued carefully worded statements acknowledging that concerns“deserved to be heard”and expressing commitment to workplaces free of impropriety, Lively showed up to the Met Gala hours later in a Donatella Versace gown from the 2006 archives as a guest of Vogue’s Anna Wintour. The message was clear: life moves on.

Yet Lively’s legal team is signaling that they’re not fully moving on. Their stated mission, according to the filing, remains to“expose and hold accountable those who weaponize smear campaigns and retaliatory lawsuits to intimidate and silence survivors.”The damages request is the next phase of that mission, turning what could have been a quiet settlement into a public statement about the cost of using the courts as a weapon.