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Justin Baldoni’s $400M defamation lawsuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds dismissed

Lawsuit dismissed FILE PHOTO: Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively are seen on the set of 'It Ends with Us' on January 12, 2024 in Jersey City, New Jersey. Baldoni's lawsuits against Lively, her husband and The New York Times have been dismissed. (Photo by Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images) (Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

The case filed by actor and director Justin Baldoni against Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds has been dismissed by the judge overseeing it.

The judge has thrown out the civil defamation case where Baldoni was asking for $400 million and centered around the film “It Ends With Us,” CNN reported.

Baldoni said the power couple tried to “destroy” him and his career. He directed and starred with Lively in the film.

The legal battle started in December 2024 when Lively claimed Baldoni sexually harassed her, then threatened retaliation after she spoke out. Baldoni denied Lively’s allegation, but she eventually filed a lawsuit.

She said he and his team tried to ruin her reputation, and she shared hundreds of text messages between him and his team that she said showed the alleged attacks.

Baldoni launched a website sharing a “timeline of relevant events” that he said supported his side of the alleged incidents.

Lively called Baldoni’s counter suit “vengeful,” People magazine reported.

Baldoni sued The New York Times for $250 million for libel, saying an article the newspaper published was “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions” based on Lively’s “self-serving narrative,” CNN reported.

In the dismissal, Judge Lewis Liman stated, “The Wayfarer Parties have not alleged that Lively is responsible for any statements other than the statements in her CRD complaint, which are privileged,” adding, “The Wayfarer Parties have alleged that Reynolds and [publicist Leslie] Sloane made additional statements accusing Baldoni of sexual misconduct and that the Times made additional statements accusing the Wayfarer Parties of engaging in a smear campaign. But 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."

The Wayfarer Parties are Wayfarer Studios and the studios’ staff, E! News reported.

Baldoni can file an amended complaint by June 23, CNN reported.

Lively’s lawyers called the dismissal “a total victory and a complete vindication for Blake Lively, along with those that Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties dragged into their retaliatory lawsuit,” E! News reported.

Requests for reaction from Baldoni and his teams have not been returned to People magazine, CNN, E! News or ABC News.

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