Blake Lively has requested to dismiss her emotional distress claims against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni.
According to a filing obtained by Variety on Tuesday, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman wrote the court that Lively’s counsel “recently advised us, in writing, that Ms. Lively is withdrawing her [infliction of emotional distress] claims” after Baldoni’s team requested her medical records to prove that she had experienced “severe emotional distress and pain, humiliation, embarrassment, belittlement, frustration and mental anguish” at Baldoni and his company Wayfarer’s hands, as she originally alleged in her December 2024 lawsuit.
Lively wanted to keep the option open to pursue her emotional distress claims later, but the judge sided with Baldoni’s team in a new ruling on Tuesday “precluding” the actress from doing so, per Deadline. The new ruling means her distress claims are officially dead.
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Lively’s attorneys Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb called the reveal of her request in Freedman’s filing a “press stunt” and insisted that Lively “continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims,” per a statement to the site.
Their request to drop the claims is an effort to “streamline and focus” Lively’s case, they argued.
The new development is part of the stars’ ongoing legal battle, which began after Lively sued Baldoni in December, alleging he’d sexually harassed her on set of It Ends With Us and then attemted to sabotage her career by orchestrating a “smear” campaign against her together with his publicist and crisis manager. Lively amplified the claims by working with The New York Times for a bombshell exposé timed to her filing.
In response, Baldoni sued the Times for $250 million for its role in the debacle, and later Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for $400 million, alleging that it was Lively who planted negative stories about him. He also contends that her lawsuit is part of her plan to destroy his reputation in an effort to salvage her own after an embarrassing turn on the It Ends With Us press tour that was perceived as insensitive to domestic violence victims.
Each has filed more than 80 pages’ worth of claims and “evidence” about who the aggressor was, with Baldoni’s team even launching a website of information they believe absolves Baldoni of wrongdoing on the It Ends With Us set. Lively’s team has called Baldoni’s legal defense “retaliation against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.”
Even so, Lively’s unwillingness to turn over her medical records in the legal battle gives Baldoni’s lawyers a thread to pull to cast doubt on her claims.
“Instead of complying” to turn over her records, Baldoni’s lawyer told People Tuesday, Lively refuses “to disclose the information and documents needed to disprove that she suffered any emotional distress” while also trying to “maintain the right to re-file her claim at an unknown time in this or some other court after the discovery window has closed.” Freedman added, “Ms. Lively cannot have it both ways,” which Judge Lewis J. Liman agreed with in his ruling on Tuesday.
“To suggest that Ms. Lively has ‘refused’ to produce anything (in either her written discovery responses, in the parties’ conference, or anytime thereafter), in connection with these claims is intentionally misleading to the Court and their intended audience for this false record: the public,” Lively’s legal team wrote in a letter to Liman on Monday.
Lively’s team also told People in a statement that the move is “routine” and they “are doing what trial lawyers do” by “streamlining” her case. They added that Baldoni’s team is “doing what they do: desperately seeking another tired round of tabloid coverage.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to lawyers for both Lively and Baldoni for additional comment.
