Blake Lively files to receive $8m in legal fees from Justin Baldoni and his studio

Blake Lively has filed for $8m in fees and costs that she says resulted from her battle against Justin Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios.

That figure is to cover the legal costs that Lively incurred from January to June 2025 in her fight against her director and co-star in the 2024 film It Ends With Us, as well as a petition for damages that was still pending when Lively v Baldoni was settled in May 2026.

In January 2025, Baldoni filed a $400m countersuit against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds for civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy after she made an initial complaint of sexual harassment the previous month. Baldoni’s defamation suit was dismissed in June 2025.

In the wake of Lively and Baldoni settling their lawsuit in early May, a federal judge ruled this June that Lively is “entitled to fees and costs” resulting from her legal fight against Baldoni’s countersuit.

Lively has now detailed the $8,035,040 in fees and costs she incurred combating Baldoni’s suit.

“Lively respectfully requests the Court award her reasonable attorneys’ fees of $7,495,526.87 and costs in the amount of $539,514.01,” reads a letter from the actor’s legal team on 30 June.

In a 15-page memorandum of law, Lively’s attorneys rebuke Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios’ “scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources”.

Lively’s attorneys Gottlieb and Hudson also described Baldoni and his team’s “near-daily press campaign promoting their sham lawsuit, propounding expansive and irrelevant discovery demands, obstructing discovery directed at them and affiliated third parties, and forcing Lively to seek frequent relief from the Court to reign in their abusive docket filings”.

The memorandum also describes Baldoni’s countersuit as an attempt to smear her reputation. “This gross abuse of the legal system was not meant to win in court,” it reads. “Its aim was to retaliate against Lively by falsely branding her a liar, intimidating witnesses and the media, and discouraging others from speaking out.”

“Thanks to this landmark decision, those considering using a lawsuit as a weapon of intimidation have been put on notice that there are consequences for doing so,” Michael Gottlieb and Esra Hudson, Lively’s attorneys, said in a statement to the Guardian.

“The value of this ruling is in the precedent it creates, the accountability it imposes, and the protection it provides to those who may one day find themselves facing similar retaliation for speaking the truth.”

Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios have until 13 July to decide whether to agree to pay Lively’s $8m costs or challenge her claim. The Guardian has reached out to Baldoni’s lawyers for comment.