Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni end settlement talks without a deal, trial looming
Actors Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni spent six hours inside a New York City courtroom Wednesday but were unable to reach a settlement in Lively's lawsuit against Baldoni, whom she co-starred with in “It Ends With Us.”
The two actors and their attorneys spent most of the day in separate courtrooms with their legal teams while a judge talked with each side privately.
The court-ordered settlement conference was a last attempt at resolution ahead of the actors' scheduled May 18 trial in a legal battle that has stretched on for more than a year.
Lively did not speak to reporters as she exited the courtroom Wednesday afternoon. Baldoni and his wife also declined to give any statements.
When asked when the two sides would resume settlement conversations, Baldoni's attorney, Bryan Freedman, told ABC News he believes the case will go to trial, saying, "I'm looking forward to it."
Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of "It Ends with Us" and accusing both Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios of engaging in a "social manipulation" campaign to "destroy" her reputation.
The two later filed lawsuits against each other in New York, with Lively reiterating the claims made in her earlier complaint and accusing Baldoni and Wayfarer of allegedly engaging in "unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing" to ruin her reputation in a lawsuit seeking $500 million in damages.
Baldoni's attorney denied the allegations.
Shortly after Lively filed her lawsuit, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and the couple's publicist for extortion and defamation, claiming Lively had "robbed" him of control over the film and had destroyed his reputation.
Lively's lawyers denied the allegations and called Baldoni's suit "another chapter in the abuser playbook."
A federal judge in New York dismissed Baldoni's suit last June, formally ending the counterclaim in October after Baldoni did not refile an amended complaint.
