Justin Baldoni’s $400M lawsuit against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds dismissed by federal judge. How we got here.

The Blake Vigorous and Justin Baldoni drama is the he-said-she-said case heard round Hollywood, with accusations flying on either side.

Vigorous and Baldoni are entangled in a authorized battle over what might or might not have occurred on the set of their Colleen Hoover adaptation, It Ends With Us, with Vigorous accusing her director and costar on the movie of sexual harassment and a subsequent retaliatory marketing campaign in opposition to her. Since then, the 2 have communicated via warring authorized groups and the press as they head towards their March 2026 courtroom case.

Baldoni has denied all allegations and mentioned that Vigorous’s claims had been false and designed to assist Vigorous acquire artistic management of It Ends With Us. In response to Vigorous’s allegations, which had been reported by the New York Occasions and included texts between Baldoni and members of his crew, he filed a $400 million countersuit in opposition to the actress, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist Leslie Sloane. The lawsuit alleges defamation and extortion, in addition to a separate $250 million defamation go well with in opposition to the New York Occasions.

However on June 9, Decide Lewis J. Liman threw out Baldoni’s lawsuit, ruling that the statements on the heart of the fits had been both privileged or lacked the mandatory authorized foundation for defamation. Baldoni’s crew might amend sure claims and refile by June 23.

In an announcement to Deadline, Vigorous’s legal professionals Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb known as the ruling “a complete victory and a whole vindication” for Vigorous, in addition to Reynolds, Sloane and the New York Occasions.

“As we have now mentioned from day one, this ‘$400 million’ lawsuit was a sham, and the Courtroom noticed proper via it,” they mentioned. “We look ahead to the following spherical, which is in search of attorneys’ charges, treble damages and punitive damages in opposition to Baldoni, Sarowitz, Nathan, and the opposite Wayfarer Events who perpetrated this abusive litigation.”

Vigorous additionally reacted to the information on June 9, writing in a publish on Instagram, “Like so many others, I’ve felt the ache of a retaliatory lawsuit, together with the manufactured disgrace that tries to interrupt us. Whereas the go well with in opposition to me was defeated, so many don’t have the assets to struggle again.”

She added that she is “extra resolved than ever” to face for “each lady’s proper to have a voice in defending themselves, together with their security, their integrity, their dignity and their story.”

The actress famous that “there are protections on the market,” and linked to “unbelievable organizations” that supply data and assets.

In the meantime, on June 10, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman mentioned in an announcement to Folks that whereas the defamation-related claims had been dismissed, the courtroom has nonetheless invited them to “amend 4 out of the seven claims” in opposition to Vigorous, which Freedman alleges will “showcase further proof and refined allegations.”

He added, “This case is about false accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation and a nonexistent smear marketing campaign, which Ms. Vigorous’s personal crew conveniently describes as ‘untraceable’ as a result of they can’t show what by no means occurred.”

It’s all very messy — and with the case headed to courtroom in March 2026, there’s nearly definitely going to be extra that can unfold. However how did It Ends With Us go from being a extremely anticipated adaptation of a preferred BookTok novel to being one of many leisure business’s greatest rifts up to now? Right here’s what to know.

Skip forward:

The way it all started

Vigorous and Baldoni starred collectively in 2024’s It Ends With Us, based mostly on Hoover’s 2016 romance novel a couple of lady breaking out of the cycle of home violence. Baldoni, who initially acquired the rights to the guide via his manufacturing firm, Wayfarer Studios, additionally directed the movie, whereas Vigorous was additionally an government producer on the mission.

When the film got here out in August 2024, followers seen that Vigorous and Baldoni — who performed a pair within the movie — didn’t do interviews collectively or pose for photographs on the film’s premiere, fueling hypothesis that there was a rift between the 2.

Through the movie’s press tour, Vigorous confronted backlash for downplaying the story’s central theme of home violence, as a substitute emphasizing feminine empowerment and the movie’s floral aesthetic and even weaving in promotion for her newly launched hair care line. Social media buzz turned essential in opposition to the star as previous interviews resurfaced that portrayed the actress as catty or impolite. In the meantime, Baldoni — whose model and podcast Man Sufficient is centered on untangling himself from poisonous masculinity — obtained reward for together with home violence as a part of the bigger dialog in regards to the movie.

Blake Vigorous speaks out

Vigorous had stayed quiet about her time on the It Ends With Us set and work with Baldoni — till December 2024, when she filed a grievance with the California Civil Rights Division. In her grievance, she claimed Baldoni engaged in sexual harassment and created a hostile work setting throughout the movie’s manufacturing.

Her grievance coincided with a New York Occasions exposé titled “‘We Can Bury Anybody’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine,” which detailed Vigorous’s allegations — alongside along with her authorized grievance — and highlighted the alleged retaliatory actions by Baldoni’s crew. That included Baldoni encouraging publicists to drum up a smear marketing campaign in opposition to the star, which Vigorous mentioned was the driving power behind the sudden onslaught of destructive social media feedback about her.

Vigorous was initially met with some public assist following the New York Occasions piece — folks like her Sisterhood of the Touring Pants costars and her One other Easy Favor director Paul Feig spoke out in her favor — however within the weeks after the article, social media sentiment towards the actress remained destructive.

Justin Baldoni pushes again

On Dec. 31, 2024, Baldoni filed a $250 million lawsuit in opposition to the New York Occasions. The actor claimed that the article crafted a deceptive narrative that broken his fame utilizing cherry-picked communications — like, say, a quoted textual content message that omitted an emoji indicating sarcasm. The New York Occasions stood by its reporting and in February 2025 filed to dismiss the lawsuit.

On Jan. 16, 2025, Baldoni and his crew — together with Wayfarer Studios, producer Jamey Heath and PR reps Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel — filed a lawsuit in New York federal courtroom. They accused Vigorous, her husband Reynolds and her publicist Sloane of defamation and different contract violations, whereas in search of a whopping $400 million in damages. In Baldoni’s model of occasions, Vigorous and Reynolds needed to achieve management over the making of It Ends With Us, and, when met with resistance, tried to wreck Baldoni’s fame with a harassment declare.

Within the days after his lawsuit submitting, Baldoni’s crew launched footage from the It Ends With Us set as a way to contradict a few of Vigorous’s complaints about harassment. Later, in March, he launched an internet site with details about the scenario for the general public to view.

Additionally in March, Vigorous sought to have Baldoni’s lawsuit dismissed, citing California legislation on misconduct claims.

How Taylor Swift acquired concerned

In Might, pop famous person Taylor Swift was formally dragged into the mess, with a subpoena for the artist to look in courtroom. Swift is a longtime buddy of Vigorous and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and can also be godmother to their 4 youngsters.

The artist entered the dialog when messages between Baldoni and Vigorous got here to gentle in Baldoni’s submitting. Within the lawsuit, she is known as Vigorous’s “megacelebrity buddy,” and Baldoni claimed that Vigorous used her connection to Swift — whose music “My Tears Ricochet” is within the movie — as leverage to take management of the set. That’s the reason Swift was subpoenaed.

In keeping with textual content messages between Baldoni and Vigorous, Swift was allegedly with Vigorous when she and Baldoni had been discussing a scene from It Ends With Us that Vigorous needed to vary.

In a single textual content change between her and Baldoni, Vigorous wrote of Swift and husband Reynolds, “In case you ever get round to watching Recreation of Thrones, you’ll respect that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I occur to have a number of dragons. For higher or worse, however often higher. As a result of my dragons additionally defend these I struggle for. So actually all of us profit from these beautiful monsters of mine. You’ll too, I can promise you.”

Swift’s reps, nevertheless, say that the singer’s solely involvement within the movie was permitting her music for use within the film.

“Taylor Swift by no means set foot on the set of this film, she was not concerned in any casting or artistic selections, she didn’t rating the movie, she by no means noticed an edit or made any notes on the movie, she didn’t even see It Ends With Us till weeks after its public launch, and was touring across the globe throughout 2023 and 2024 headlining the largest tour in historical past,” her reps mentioned in an announcement to the press, stating that the subpoena was “designed to make use of Taylor Swift’s identify to attract public curiosity by creating tabloid clickbait as a substitute of specializing in the information of the case.”

Although Swift’s crew mentioned her solely function within the movie was offering a music for it, as different artists who weren’t subpoenaed had executed, Baldoni beforehand said that she had a bigger affect. He advised reporters that Swift had watched a video of Isabela Ferrer, who performs a youthful model of Vigorous’s character, and inspired the casting determination — one thing that Ferrer additionally shared with the press.

Along with Swift, her longtime legislation agency Venable was additionally subpoenaed. The subpoena, initially served April 29, demanded all communications between Venable and Vigorous, Reynolds and their legal professional Michael Gottlieb. It particularly named Douglas Baldridge, a Venable companion who has represented Swift since 2013.

On Might 12, Venable filed a movement to dismiss it, in line with paperwork obtained by Billboard, calling it a “fishing expedition.” The agency said that Venable is on no account concerned within the lawsuit, and that any data Baldoni seeks needs to be sourced from Vigorous and Reynolds themselves.

“Venable had nothing to do with the movie at situation or any of the claims or defenses asserted within the underlying lawsuit,” the agency wrote, arguing the subpoena was designed “to distract from the information of the case and impose undue burden and expense on a non-party.”

In a Might 13 courtroom submitting, Reynolds and Vigorous supported Venable’s movement, calling it an “abuse of the invention course of.”

On Might 14, nevertheless, Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman got here again with a letter to the choose within the case, per Folks, stating that the choice to subpoena Swift was crucial below the circumstances. Freedman wrote that the crew obtained a tip from what he believes to be a extremely credible supply that claimed that Vigorous urged Swift to delete textual content messages between the 2 of them.

The letter additionally alleged that Vigorous’s lawyer demanded that Swift launch an announcement of assist for Vigorous over the Baldoni scenario, suggesting that if the singer refused, “personal textual content messages of a private nature in Ms. Vigorous’s possession can be launched,” the letter from Baldoni’s legal professional learn.

In an announcement to Folks on Might 14, Vigorous’s legal professional Gottlieb denied the allegations, which he known as “categorically false” and “cowardly sourced to supposed nameless sources, and fully untethered from actuality.”

“That is what we have now come to anticipate from the Wayfarer events’ legal professionals, who seem to like nothing greater than taking pictures first, with none proof, and with no take care of the folks they’re harming within the course of,” he continued. “We’ll imminently file motions with the courtroom to carry these attorneys accountable for his or her misconduct right here.”

On Might 18, Vigorous’s crew filed a movement in New York’s Southern District Courtroom that alleged Baldoni’s lawyer made the declare that she extorted Swift as a means “to seed harassing media narratives” in opposition to the actress.

“These public assaults, mixed with the Rule 11 Plaintiffs submitting quite a few claims in opposition to Ms. Vigorous with none foundation in legislation or truth, is willfully improper and warrants sanctions,” the authorized doc learn, per the Wrap.

Vigorous’s crew additionally filed a second movement to compel Wayfarer Studios at hand over paperwork and recordings from what they name a “disingenuous charade” of an investigation into her sexual harassment on the It Ends With Us set. The submitting accuses Wayfarer of failing to correctly examine her allegations, which embody Baldoni allegedly discussing his intercourse life and staging improvised intimacy scenes with out her consent. Her crew argues that if an actual investigation had taken place in 2023, it could have validated her claims — and that Vigorous would have been “spared the retaliatory smear marketing campaign” she alleges Baldoni incited in its wake.

Nonetheless, on Might 22, the subpoena in opposition to Swift was dropped.

A spokesperson for Vigorous confirmed that Baldoni’s authorized crew has withdrawn subpoenas issued to Swift and her authorized counsel — a transfer the spokesperson says they’re happy with.

“We supported the efforts of Taylor’s crew to quash these inappropriate subpoenas directed to her counsel, and we’ll proceed to face up for any third celebration who’s unjustly harassed or threatened within the course of,” the spokesperson mentioned in an announcement obtained by Folks.

The assertion additionally criticized the Baldoni and Wayfarer crew’s dealing with of the case, suggesting that they had tried to make use of Swift’s fame for strategic benefit. “The Baldoni and Wayfarer crew have tried to place Taylor Swift, a girl who has been an inspiration for tens of tens of millions throughout the globe, on the heart of this case since day one,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Exploiting Taylor Swift’s celeb was the unique plan in Melissa Nathan’s state of affairs planning doc, and it continues to at the present time. Confronted with having to justify themselves in federal courtroom, they folded. In some unspecified time in the future they are going to run out of distractions from the precise claims of sexual harassment and retaliation they’re going through.”

The place Deadpool is available in

Baldoni additionally known as out Reynolds’s Marvel film for allegedly making an attempt to wreck his fame — particularly with the character of Nicepool, portrayed by Reynolds however credited below the identify “Gordon Reynolds.” Within the movie Deadpool & Wolverine, Nicepool is another model of Reynolds’s sarcastic superhero Deadpool who sports activities lengthy hair and a bun just like a mode worn by Baldoni previously. Nicepool additionally calls himself a feminist and remarks on Vigorous’s character Ladypool’s postpartum physique.

“Reynolds portrayed Nicepool as a vicious caricature of a ‘woke’ feminist earlier than concluding the character’s arc along with his violent taking pictures dying by the hands of ‘Ladypool,’ a personality voiced by Blake Vigorous,” the go well with states. It calls the character a “clear and mocking portrayal of Reynolds’ warped notion of Baldoni.”

The It Ends With Us credit additionally thank “Gordon Reynolds.”

Blake Vigorous breaks her silence in 2025

Vigorous and Reynolds saved a comparatively low profile within the rapid wake of the lawsuit. Nonetheless, the 2 have just lately hinted on the drama at public occasions, one among which incorporates Vigorous and Reynolds’s February look on the Saturday Evening Stay fiftieth anniversary on Feb. 16 — their first public look collectively because the lawsuit broke. When requested how issues had been going by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Reynolds jokingly responded with “Why? What have you ever heard?”

Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman addressed the second on Billy Bush’s podcast, calling it “stunning” that they’d joke about such critical issues.

On the 2025 Time100 Gala on April 24, the place Vigorous was an honored visitor after making its record of most influential folks, she spoke about utilizing her voice for good, saying, “Who and what we arise for, and what we keep silent about, what we monetize versus what we really dwell, issues.”

She additionally hinted at her authorized battle, stating, “I’ve a lot to say in regards to the final two years of my life, however tonight will not be the discussion board.”

In a Might look on Late Evening With Seth Meyers to advertise One other Easy Favor, Vigorous additionally spoke about utilizing her voice for change.

“What I can say with out getting an excessive amount of into it’s that this 12 months has been filled with the very best highs and the bottom lows of my life,” Vigorous advised Meyers. “And I see so many ladies round, afraid to talk — particularly proper now — afraid to share their experiences. And concern is by design. It’s what retains us silent. However I additionally acknowledge that many individuals don’t have the chance to talk. So I do really feel lucky that I’ve been capable of. It’s the ladies who’ve had the flexibility to make use of their voice that’s saved me sturdy and helped me in my perception and my struggle for the world to be safer for girls and ladies.”

Vigorous drops her emotional misery declare

In keeping with courtroom paperwork, on June 2, Vigorous selected to withdraw her emotional misery claims in opposition to Baldoni, which got here after the director’s authorized crew requested entry to Vigorous’s medical data. They argued the data had been central to her allegations of emotional misery.

Baldoni’s crew said that relatively than hand over her data, Vigorous is withdrawing her emotional misery declare, courtroom papers cited by Selection said. Nonetheless, Vigorous needs to withdraw the claims with out prejudice, which means she may refile them later ought to she change her thoughts — one thing that Baldoni’s crew has pushed again in opposition to.

Baldoni’s crew argued that Vigorous is each refusing to reveal the paperwork wanted to disprove that she suffered emotional misery, and/or that Baldoni and his manufacturing firm had been the trigger. Nonetheless, on the similar time, she is sustaining the suitable to refile the declare “at an unknown time on this or another courtroom after the invention window has closed.” As of now, they’ve reached an deadlock.

Vigorous’s legal professionals refuted that, stating that Baldoni’s legal professionals aren’t correct in Vigorous refusing at hand over these paperwork. As an alternative, they mentioned the crew is “deliberately deceptive to the Courtroom” and that their “meant viewers” for this “false file” was the general public, alleging that Baldoni’s legal professionals are utilizing this as a method to spin destructive press in regards to the actress. They said that they’re dropping the emotional misery declare to give attention to different costs in courtroom.

“As soon as once more, this can be a routine a part of the litigation course of that’s getting used as a press stunt. We’re doing what trial legal professionals do: making ready our case for trial by streamlining and focusing it; they’re doing what they do: desperately in search of one other drained spherical of tabloid protection,” they mentioned, in line with TMZ.

Vigorous’s crew said that Vigorous nonetheless “alleged emotional misery, as a part of quite a few different claims in her lawsuit, corresponding to sexual harassment and retaliation, and big further compensatory damages on all of her claims.”