Settlement Settled? Blake Lively Wants More From Justin Baldoni

Even after both sides claimed victory, the It Ends With Us legal saga isn’t actually over.

On Monday, June 1, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s attorneys faced off in a New York City courtroom to hash out one more thing: whether Lively, 38, deserves additional damages on top of their out-of-court settlement. Neither Lively nor Baldoni, 42, showed up for the hearing, and U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman didn’t issue a ruling after the hour-long discussion.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The two sides reached their settlement just weeks ago, right before the Met Gala on May 4. Both camps released what sounded like a diplomatic joint statement, talking about pride in the film and commitment to workplace integrity. But the moment ink dried on that deal, their lawyers started spinning completely different narratives. Baldoni’s team called it a total victory for Wayfarer. Lively’s camp immediately countered that she’s entitled to damages because of the harm she suffered throughout the process—claiming the settlement itself was proof her concerns were valid and never fabricated.

Enter Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman, who didn’t mince words about Lively’s new push for damages, calling the request“more nonsense.”He went further, suggesting she can’t take responsibility for her own actions. Lively’s attorney Sigrid McCawley hit back with a different angle, highlighting the $60 million the pair reportedly spent on legal fees and noting that most people simply can’t afford to fight battles like this one. She framed it as a privilege and a commentary on why legal protections matter.

What’s really happening here is a fight over the meaning of the settlement itself. For Lively, reaching an agreement where the other side acknowledged her concerns“deserved to be heard”is vindication—a permanent record that her harassment and retaliation claims were never lies. For Baldoni’s camp, that same admission is just the cost of moving on, not a concession of guilt. The question now is whether a judge agrees that Lively gets to have her cake and eat it too: a settlement that validates her claims, plus additional money for the emotional and legal toll of getting there.

With no ruling yet and both sides dug in, this legal chess match may drag on longer than either party hoped when they announced peace just weeks ago. Sometimes a settlement isn’t actually the end—it’s just a pause between rounds.