On Wednesday, Justin Baldoni and his wife, Emily, were spotted holding hands in Nashville, just two days after resolving their legal dispute with Blake Lively. The actor and his Swedish actress wife, who have been married since 2013 and share two children, daughter Maiya Grace and son Maxwell Roland-Samuel, were filmed outside a café in Tennessee.
The settlement between Lively and Baldoni, announced in a joint statement on Monday, ended more than a year of contentious litigation over the filming of the 2024 romantic drama "It Ends With Us." Both sides had been expected to testify in a civil trial scheduled for May, which would have revealed more details of Lively's allegations of sexual misconduct by Baldoni.
The statement said that both sides hoped the deal would bring "closure." Lively, widely known for her role in the TV series "Gossip Girl," sued Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios, and others in December 2024, seeking damages for alleged harassment, defamation, invasion of privacy, and violations of federal and state civil rights laws. She claimed that the defendants created a sexually charged atmosphere during the movie's production and then mounted a smear campaign to silence her.
Baldoni, who directed and co-starred in "It Ends With Us," countered that he quickly resolved Lively's concerns and said he was entitled to hire a crisis management firm after Lively began publicly disparaging him. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman dismissed Lively's sexual harassment claims on April 2, but details of the actor's allegations could have still emerged in the scheduled May 18 civil trial over her retaliation claims.
The dispute became public in December 2024 when Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department, followed by her lawsuit. A related article published in the New York Times was titled: "'We Can Bury Anyone': Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine." Baldoni sued Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, for defamation, saying they tried to destroy his reputation, but Liman dismissed that case in June. The judge also dismissed Baldoni's defamation case against the Times.
"It Ends With Us" starred Lively as a flower shop owner who marries a neurosurgeon played by Baldoni.
