The gloves are off. Blake Lively is firing back at Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit in a scorching new twist to their ongoing legal war – and this time, she’s not holding anything back.
Lively has accused Baldoni of launching a “scorched earth” retaliation campaign to silence her sexual harassment claims. In a bombshell legal statement released Thursday, her attorneys slammed Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit as a calculated attack designed to dismantle California laws that protect survivors.
The core of the battle? Lively’s December 2024 accusations that Baldoni harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us, and then used his power to orchestrate a smear campaign. Baldoni responded with a legal nuke: suing not just Lively, but also her husband Ryan Reynolds, her longtime publicist Leslie Sloane, and even The New York Times over its reporting.
Lively’s team says that move wasn’t about defending his reputation – it was about sending a chilling message to survivors: “Speak up, and we will destroy you.”
Lively’s attorneys blasted Baldoni for trying to undermine AB 933, a California statute that gives sexual harassment victims legal protection from retaliatory defamation suits. “Mr. Baldoni has gone from monetizing a brand devoted to believing and supporting women, to tearing down the very laws that protect them,” they wrote in a statement to Us Weekly.
Lively also says Baldoni’s claims are legally time-barred. In their court filing, her team called his complaint “vengeful and rambling,” insisting it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Reynolds is standing firm with Lively, calling Baldoni “thin-skinned” and positioning himself as a “supportive spouse” in her legal battle. But Baldoni’s lawyers shot back, labeling Reynolds a “co-conspirator” and accusing Lively of using media smoke screens to shift attention.
Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman didn’t mince words either. In a scathing response to Daily Mail, he called Lively’s team “rattled” and accused her of dodging serious conversations about survivor rights while promoting haircare and alcohol products. “She doesn’t need discovery to find out who smeared her,” he quipped. “Just a mirror will do.”
A trial date has now been set for March 9, 2026, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. If the court sides with Lively, it could set a powerful precedent for how Hollywood handles harassment allegations and retaliation lawsuits. If Baldoni wins? The chill for future whistleblowers could be devastating.
This isn’t just a celebrity spat – it’s a courtroom battle with serious implications for free speech, victim protection laws, and the dark underbelly of an industry that still struggles with accountability.
And with each legal filing, the temperature just keeps rising.
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