This past December, four months after the release of It Ends With Us, Blake Lively sued her costar and director, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment, alleging that he also led a coordinated effort to damage her professional reputation during the film’s promotion. In a legal complaint filed in late December, Lively claimed that Baldoni had enlisted the services of Melissa Nathan—a crisis PR specialist whose previous clients include Johnny Depp—to aid in this effort.
Lively’s complaint further alleged that Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath fostered a toxic work environment during filming. In early 2024, upon returning to the set of It Ends With Us following the previous year’s guild strikes, Lively reportedly called a meeting with Baldoni and several producers. According to court documents, she requested that Baldoni and Heath cease “showing nude videos or images of women, including a producer’s wife, to BL and/or her employees,” among other inappropriate behaviors. (She also requested the presence of an intimacy coordinator on set.)
Baldoni’s legal team called the suit “shameful” and full of “categorically false accusations”—but the drama didn’t end there. Below, find a full timeline of the various accusations exchanged between Lively and Baldoni, and see how Ryan Reynolds, Nathan’s PR firm, and others factor into the mess.
December 20, 2024: Lively files a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department
Lively’s original complaint accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during filming, as well as retaliation against Lively when she attempted to stand up against his misbehavior.
December 21, 2024: The New York Times publishes a lengthy investigation into the PR machine Baldoni summoned to help smear Lively
The same day, it was reported that WME had dropped Baldoni as a client, although the talent agency publicly insisted that Lively and Reynolds, both of whom are represented by WME, weren’t behind its decision.
December 31, 2024: Lively formally sues Baldoni, his film studio Wayfarer, and his PR team
Although Lively had already gone public with her California Civil Rights Department complaint earlier in December, the lawsuit she filed in New York federal court on Tuesday, December 31, specifically named Baldoni, Wayfarer, and PR representatives Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel for subjecting her to “further retaliation and attacks” after her participation in the New York Times story. “Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law,” said one of Lively’s attorneys.
December 31, 2024: Baldoni and his publicity team sue The New York Times for libel
Baldoni’s own 87-page legal complaint, which he filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleged that The New York Times relied “almost entirely” on Lively’s “unverified” narrative, and accused her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of being “aggressive” toward Baldoni during a meeting in New York City. (It should be noted that said aggression was allegedly an accusation, on Reynolds’s part, that Baldoni had fat-shamed Lively, a practice that’s sadly still all too common in Hollywood.) Baldoni intended to sue The New York Times for $250 million in damages.
January 16, 2025: Baldoni, Wayfarer, Nathan Abel file a counter lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds
Baldoni then filed a lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, suing them for $400 million in damages. The suit, filed in a New York court, is based on claims of defamation, civil extortion, and invasion of privacy.
In it, Lively is accused of breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and both Lively and Reynolds are accused of intentional interference with contractual relations and economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage. The plaintiffs also denied Lively’s claims of harassment, and claim both Lively and Reynolds hijacked the production and marketing of It Ends With Us. They also allege in the case that Lively worked with the media to enact her own smear campaign against Baldoni.
“This is a case about two of the most powerful stars in the world deploying their enormous power to steal an entire film right out of the hands of its director and production studio. Then, when Lively and Reynolds’ efforts failed to win them the acclaim they believed they so richly deserved, they turned their fury on their chosen scapegoat,” the plaintiffs said.
The suit also says that Baldoni and the studio did not want to take legal action, but that Lively had “unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight…But also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of.”
January 17, 2025: Lively’s legal team responds to Baldoni’s lawsuit
In a statement, Lively’s legal team, Manatt, Phelps Phillips and Willkie Farr Gallagher, described the lawsuit as “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation, and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”
January 27, 2025: Lively and Baldoni’s trial date is set for the spring of 2026
Lewis J. Liman, the New York federal judge assigned to the case, told Lively and Baldoni’s lawyers to prepare for a trial date of March 9, 2026, also warning them to be ready to “address complaints about pretrial publicity and attorney conduct.” (This is likely in reference to Lively’s lawyers claiming that an attorney for Baldoni had been trying to taint potential jurors.)
May 14, 2025: Baldoni’s attorneys involve Lively’s friendship with Taylor Swift in their case
Lively’s longtime friend Swift was subpoenaed by Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, in May, with lawyers for Lively and Reynolds in turn attempting to block the subpoena. Baldoni’s team claimed on Wednesday that Lively’s attorney “demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively,” alleging that “if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.” Baldoni’s attorneys also claimed that Lively asked Swift to delete their text messages.
In response, Lively’s attorney called the allegations “categorically false.” A spokesperson for Swift was also quick to distance the singer from Lively and Baldoni’s legal proceedings. “Given that her involvement [with It Ends With Us] was licensing a song [“My Tears Ricochet”] for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,” the rep’s statement read, in part.
June 9, 2025: Baldoni’s countersuit against Lively and defamation case against The New York Times are dismissed
On June 9, a federal judge in New York granted a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds, and their publicist, Leslie Sloane, as well as his $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times. Though Baldoni and co. can still amend their claims for breach of implied covenant and tortious interference with contract, Judge Lewis J. Liman problematized Baldoni’s defamation claim, writing:
“The Wayfarer Parties have alleged that Reynolds and Sloane made additional statements accusing Baldoni of sexual misconduct and that the Times made additional statements accusing the Wayfarer Parties of engaging in a smear campaign…. But the Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Reynolds, Sloane or the Times would have seriously doubted these statements were true based on the information available to them, as is required for them to be liable for defamation under applicable law.”
He added: “The alleged facts indicate that the Times reviewed the available evidence and reported, perhaps in a dramatized manner, what it believed to have happened,” the opinion said. “The Times had no obvious motive to favor Lively’s version of events.”
Liman also scrutinized Baldoni’s claims that Lively’s camp had engaged in civil extortion by “threatening to refuse to promote the film and attack Baldoni and Wayfarer in the press if the Wayfarer Parties did not agree to grant her, rather than Wayfarer, control over and credit for the film.” Liman argued that “the Wayfarer Parties have not adequately alleged that Lively’s threats were wrongful extortion rather than legally permissible hard bargaining or renegotiation of working conditions.”
Lively’s lawyers promptly celebrated the dismissal as “a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit.”
