Blake Lively has responded to her recent legal victory. Shortly after a judge dismissed Justin Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against her, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and The New York Times, the former Gossip Girl star took to social media to share her thoughts.
“Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories on June 9. She acknowledged that although the lawsuit against her was dismissed, many people lack the resources to defend themselves.
The Simple Favor actress expressed that she is “more resolved than ever” to “stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves,” and shared a list of organizations supporting women’s rights, domestic violence survivors, and employment law causes.
“With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me,” she concluded. “Many of you I know. Many of you I don’t. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you.”
In Baldoni’s lawsuit, he claimed that Lively “stole” the 2024 film from him and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, and threatened to “attack” him in the media if her demands were not met.
However, Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled that the Wayfarer Parties “have not adequately alleged that Lively’s threats were wrongful extortion rather than legally permissible hard bargaining or renegotiation of working conditions,” according to documents seen by E! News.
Baldoni also alleged that Lively, Reynolds, and Sloane collaborated with The New York Times to “spread a false narrative that Baldoni committed sexual misconduct towards Lively,” partly through a December article in the paper.
But Liman’s dismissal stated that “the Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Reynolds, Sloane, or the Times would have seriously doubted these statements were true based on the information available to them, as is required for them to be liable for defamation under applicable law.” (Baldoni’s separate $250 million suit against The Times was also dismissed.)
