Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively were “unsuccessful in reaching any kind of resolution” during a court-ordered settlement conference Wednesday, Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman said.
The hearing, which took place at U.S. District Court in New York City, was the first time the “It Ends With Us” co-stars had appeared in person together since their legal battle — one of Hollywood’s messiest in years — began in December 2024 when Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment and retaliation on the set of their 2024 film.
Wednesday’s proceeding was closed to members of the media and the public. The two stars arrived separately — Baldoni with his wife, Emily, and Lively with her team. They spent a majority of the day in separate courtrooms, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave went back and forth between both legal teams, the source said.
Freedman told reporters outside the courtroom in Manhattan that Baldoni’s and Lively’s camps would return to court Thursday for a “different matter on the docket.” He didn’t specify whether Baldoni and Lively would be in present.
Justin Baldoni, left, and Blake Lively as they each depart the New York Federal Courthouse in Manhattan, Feb. 11, 2026. Seth Wenig / AP
Freedman didn’t rule out a possible settlement in the future, saying that “there’s always a chance” and that he remains “very hopeful” about how the case will proceed.
A representative for Lively did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Should the actors not reach a settlement, they will head to trial on May 18.
“This is a really critical leverage point,” NBC News legal analyst Misty Marris said before Wednesday’s settlement conference. “A lot of what the judge will point to in this particular case is the public spectacle of it all.”
The case has reverberated through Hollywood, exposing private texts among A-listers and uncomfortably candid studio business conversations that normally remain behind closed doors, as well as subjecting Lively and Baldoni to the broader culture war around sexual harassment.
According to Parrot Analytics, which tracks public sentiment via social media mentions and video comments, Lively had a positive sentiment of 81% in March 2023, shortly after her casting in “It Ends With Us” was announced. By Jan. 31 of this year, that sentiment had dropped to 10.6%. Positive sentiment for Baldoni dropped from a high of 62.5% in March 2024 to 8.7% by Jan. 31.
Lively has alleged that the decline of her public image is at least in part due to a smear campaign that Baldoni’s team orchestrated after she spoke up about sexual harassment, an allegation his lawyers have denied.
Lively, who was much better known than Baldoni before the case, has more to lose as it drags on, according to crisis PR expert Eleanor McManus.
“She’s taken a huge reputational hit,” McManus said. “And now she’s seen by a lot of studios as a lightning rod.”
Some of the damage has come from private communications and depositions that were unsealed as part of the lawsuit Lively, 38, filed against Baldoni, 42, who was also the director of “It Ends With Us.”
In a deposition unsealed last month, Sony Pictures’ executive vice president of production, Andrea Giannetti, confirmed that she referred to Lively as a “f—ing terrorist” after she learned that Lively threatened to quit the film if a 17-point list of changes she wanted was not executed. Sony Motion Pictures Group President Sanford Panitch called Lively “epic level stupid” in an email exchange with his colleagues on Aug. 21, 2024.
“It’s quite ironic because she has a huge hit movie headed to $300M-plus,” Panitch wrote. “And probably will never work again, or not for a while.”
Lively has, in fact, closed a film deal since then, to star in and produce “The Survivor List” at Lionsgate, a project announced in August that is still in development, the studio confirmed.
“Blake is focused on her family and the trial, but she’s continuing to work,” said a source close to Lively. In addition to her acting career, Lively also has the beverage brand Betty Buzz and the hair care company Blake Brown Beauty, both of which plan product launches in coming months, the source said.
A representative for Baldoni declined to comment on his career plans.
The biggest headlines in the case have come from the court’s unsealing communications with other celebrities, including Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, who pushed their agency, WME, to advocate harder on Lively’s behalf with Sony executives.
Some of Lively’s messages with Swift, a world-famous pop star, were also made public.
“I think this bitch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin,” Swift texted Lively in December 2024, weeks before Lively’s lawsuit made headlines, alongside a link to a People article in which Baldoni described having been “sexually traumatized” by an ex-girlfriend.
Taylor Swift and Blake Lively hug before the Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas on Feb. 11, 2024.Ezra Shaw / Getty Images file
The controversy around “It Ends With Us” began with fans noticing Lively and Baldoni distancing themselves from each other during the press tour, but it did not hurt the film’s box office.
The romantic drama, adapted from a Colleen Hoover novel that deals with domestic violence, has grossed more than $350 million worldwide since it opened in August 2024, becoming both actors’ highest-grossing film.
“This is a film that grossed over $300 million globally, which is an extraordinary achievement,” said an industry source who is familiar with the inner workings of the case. This person declined to be named because he works with several high-profile celebrities. “Both sides would have been highly in demand going forward. Most people in Hollywood find it pretty inexplicable why this [case] was even brought in the first place.”
Lively first filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department on Dec. 20, 2024, that accused Baldoni of sexual harassment during the filming of “It Ends With Us,” as well as retaliation after she raised issues about his on-set behavior. On Dec. 31, 2024, she filed a federal civil lawsuit against Baldoni. In February 2025, she filed an amended complaint against Baldoni, his company, Wayfarer, Wayfarer’s CEO and others.
Baldoni filed a countersuit against Lively seeking $400 million, but a federal judge dismissed it in June and formally ended it in November after an amended complaint was not filed by a court-set deadline.
Lively’s amended complaint, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, alleges that there was a “multi-tiered plan” by Baldoni and his team to destroy her reputation.
Both actors will weigh the financial and emotional costs of going forward. For Lively, who has already invested over a year of her life in the case, that will include deciding how much more scrutiny she wants to endure.
“Trial is a grueling process,” Marris said. “That’s times 10 when you have a high-profile individual sitting in that box. The question is how much is she willing to put herself through.”