Blake Lively recently opened up about how tough things got during a legal battle with Justin Baldoni.
She said it’s been painful, but now that the case got thrown out, she’s finally speaking out.
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Blake got emotional when the news came in
A source close to Blake said she actually cried with relief on June 9, right after hearing the judge tossed Baldoni’s countersuit.
That case had accused her and Ryan Reynolds of extortion and defamation.
“She’s obviously relieved. They both are,” another insider shared. “She feels vindicated.”
One more source added that “everyone is happy” on her legal team.
She opened up about the experience
Blake didn’t hold back.
“Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us,” she wrote on Instagram. That feeling of being publicly attacked seemed to hit her deeply.
And through it all, she thanked people who stood beside her. “With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me, many of you I know. Many of you I don’t. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you.”
Standing up for women and their voices
Even though the case was dismissed, it clearly left a mark. She said it only made her more determined to speak up for other women.
Lively said she’s “more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.”
She didn’t stop at words
Lively shared a list of organizations that offer help, info, or legal resources for people dealing with similar stuff. “While the suit against me was defeated, so many don’t have the resources to fight back,” she said.
Some of the names included California Employment Lawyers Association, Equal Rights Advocates, Sanctuary for Families, and the National Network to End Domestic Violence, among others.
Legal experts also backed her strongly
Those same organizations weren’t just on her list. Many of them had already stepped up earlier, filing official court briefs supporting Lively.
A spokesperson for her said those groups were warning people about what they saw as Baldoni’s “attempt to dismantle a law designed to protect women who speak up.”
Judge officially tossed out the lawsuit
On June 9, a judge dismissed the $400 million lawsuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds. Baldoni had claimed defamation and extortion, but it didn’t hold up.
There was also a separate $250 million case Baldoni filed against The New York Times that got thrown out too.
Her lawyers now plan to go after damages
Now that the case is dismissed, her legal team is looking to take further legal action.
They called it a “total victory and a complete vindication” for Lively. “As we have said from day one, this ‘$400 million’ lawsuit was a sham, and the Court saw right through it,” attorneys Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb said.
They said they’re going after attorneys’ fees, treble damages, and punitive damages against Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties for what they called “abusive litigation.”
Baldoni’s lawyer fired back after Blake’s statement
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, didn’t stay quiet.
In a statement released on June 10, he said her team’s “predictable declaration of victory is false.”
He also claimed this whole thing was still about “false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear campaign,” adding that Blake’s own team called it “untraceable” because, in his words, “they cannot prove what never happened.”
Freedman also said, “Ms. Lively’s own claims are no truer today than they were yesterday,” and made it clear they weren’t backing down.
“With the facts on our side, we march forward with the same confidence that we had when Ms. Lively and her cohorts initiated this battle and look forward to her forthcoming deposition, which I will be taking,” he added.
Even though the judge tossed out most of the claims, Baldoni’s team still has a shot to revise and move forward with two of them. They have until June 23 to try again.
The whole thing started with heavy claims
Back in December 2024, Lively had filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni, her It Ends With Us co-star and director, of sexual harassment and retaliation. He denied the claims.
She later agreed to drop two parts of her case — intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress — to simplify the legal process. Her team said that’s just normal procedure.
Baldoni’s response was pretty harsh then
In March, Baldoni’s legal rep, Freedman, pushed back hard. After Lively moved to dismiss their countersuit, he accused her of trying to dodge the consequences.
He said, “The actress’ attempt to dismiss herself from the self-concocted disaster she initiated is one of the most abhorrent examples of abusing our legal system.”
Freedman also added, “Stringent rules are put into place to protect the innocent and allow individuals to rightfully defend themselves. Laws are not meant to be twisted and curated by privileged elites to fit their own personal agenda.”
Their trial is currently set for March 2026.
