Justin Baldoni is not backing down after a New York judge dismissed his high-profile defamation lawsuits following Blake Lively’s sexual harassment and retaliation claims tied to the set of It Ends With Us.
Speaking to TMZ on Tuesday, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, criticized what he called Lively’s “false” celebration of the ruling and confirmed plans to file an amended complaint by the end of June.
“We march forward with the same confidence we had when Ms. Lively and her team initiated this battle,” Freedman said. “We look forward to her upcoming deposition, which I will personally conduct.”
Back in December, Lively, 37, filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing Baldoni, 41—her co-star and director in It Ends With Us—of sexual harassment and of orchestrating a retaliatory smear campaign. Her claims gained traction after The New York Times published a widely shared exposé titled We Can Bury Anyone.
In response, Baldoni filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Times, followed in January by a $400 million suit targeting Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing them of defamation and civil extortion.
However, Judge Liman dismissed both of Baldoni’s lawsuits on Monday, while granting him the opportunity to revise and resubmit certain claims—specifically those alleging breach of the implied covenant and tortious interference with contract—by June 23.
“While the Court dismissed the defamation-related claims, it has allowed us to amend four out of seven claims against Ms. Lively,” said Freedman. “The amended filing will include new evidence and clearer allegations. This case remains about false claims of harassment and retaliation, and a smear campaign Lively’s own team calls ‘untraceable’—because it never happened.”
