Blake Lively to Keep Fighting as Most of Justin Baldoni Case Dismissed

Blake Lively is speaking out after a judge dismissed the majority of her case against It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman dismissed most claims in Lively’s lawsuit over alleged sexual harassment on the It Ends With Us set, significantly narrowing the scope of the case as it proceeds to a May trial. Liman’s decision drops Lively’s claims of harassment, defamation and conspiracy, meaning the trial will now center on alleged breach of contract and retaliation by Wayfarer and aiding and abetting retaliation by the PR firm working for Baldoni.

But Lively is vowing to keep “fighting” and views the decision as still allowing “the heart of [her] case” to proceed.

“I will never stop doing my part in fighting to expose the systems and people who seek to harm, shame, silence and retaliate against victims,” she wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram Stories on Friday.

She wrote, earlier in the statement, “I’m grateful for the Court’s ruling which allows the heart of my case to be presented to a jury next month, and for the ability to finally tell my story in full at trial, for my own sake, but also for those who don’t have the same opportunity to… many of whom I have known and loved deeply in my life, and the countless I’ll never know.”

She added, “The last thing I wanted in my life was a lawsuit, but 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. I hope the Court’s decision shows others that, as unfathomably painful as it is, you can speak up.”

And Lively, who’s set to testify in the trial, feels grateful for the opportunity to present her side of the story and even included a possible reference to alleged texts she sent to husband Ryan Reynolds and friend Taylor Swift comparing herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi and Reynolds and Swift her dragons, revealed as part of Baldoni’s January 2025 defamation and extortion countersuit, which was dismissed in June of last year.

“I know it’s a privilege to be able to stand up. I will not waste it,” Lively wrote, followed by a dragon emoji.

“I couldn’t begin to stand up if not for the countless who’ve gone before me — and the masses who are still around us all — creating laws, social change, sparking conversations, rallying, working privately and publicly, risking and sometimes losing everything for the safety of others in all spaces. Some whose names we know, most we don’t,” she added. “Thank you. All of you … Your support keeps me going.”

And she encouraged her fans not to “be distracted by the digital soap opera,” maintaining, “The physical pain from digital violence is very real. It is abuse. And it’s everywhere.”

“My claims won’t be the first or last time you’ll see examples of the extreme dangers of retaliation and digital warfare,” she wrote.

She also shared screenshots of key excerpts from Liman’s Thursday ruling.

Lively claimed in her lawsuit that Baldoni orchestrated a retaliatory campaign in the press and on social media after she went public with her sexual harassment claims.

The court found that while Baldoni was entitled to protect his reputation, some of what he was alleged to have done could serve as an attack on Lively’s reputation, including key messaging in Baldoni’s PR campaign that she had a “less than favorable reputation in the industry span[ning] decades.” There’s also evidence that could lead a jury to conclude that Wayfarer planned more aggressive moves designed to hurt her career, according to the ruling.

Lively’s lawyer Sigrid McCawley in a statement on Thursday said he case has “always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set.” She added, “For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they’ve targeted.”

Baldoni’s lawyers, Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach, meanwhile stressed that the judge’s decision left a “significantly narrowed case.”

Lively’s agency WME also spoke out in support of the actress on Friday.

“In an industry that too often asks women to absorb the damage and stay quiet, Blake Lively chose to stand up for herself, her castmates, and those without the ability to fight back,” the agency said in a statement. “She has met this moment with courage, moral clarity, and extraordinary determination.”

And the agency highlighted how she “helped expose the devastating harm caused by covert digital takedown campaigns designed to intimidate, discredit, and drown out the truth.”