Blake Lively leaves federal court in New York on Feb. 11, 2026. Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images Logo text Blake Lively will receive about $400,000 in legal fees after the settlement of her legal battles with her This Is Us co-star Justin Baldoni.
This is well below the $8 million Lively sought to make up for her attorneys fees as she fought against the defamation lawsuit filed by Baldoni as part of their larger legal tussle. However, in the ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, wrote that he agreed with Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios, who said that Lively was “entitled only to the reasonable fees and costs necessary to defend against the defamation claim,” rather than her larger claim amount. This amounted to $363,000 in attorneys’ fees and $44,000 in court costs.
Lively had been seeking just over $8 million, which included $7.5 million in attorneys’ fees and another $540,000 in court costs. She sought compensation under a California law designed to protect survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination from retaliatory lawsuits.
While Liman found that the counsel’s rates were not unreasonable, in what he called a case with “complex legal issues,” he found that “the number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable.”
Additionally, he denied other requests for reimbursement, including on media relations.
“Media relations were not integral to defending the defamation claim brought against Lively,” the ruling states. “Accordingly, time spent on media relations and press coverage is not compensable.”
This was Lively’s last chance at monetary compensation (unless she decides to file another suit) after she and Baldoni settled their 18-month legal war in May, just ahead of a federal trial that was scheduled for later that month.
The legal battle began after Lively filed a legal complaint in December 2024, alleging that Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios had launched an online smear campaign against her after she spoke up about sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us.
In turn, Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios filed a defamation suit, which claimed Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, had planted false claims in order to take over creative control the film. He also sued The New York Times for writing a story after Lively’s complaint. Both those suits were dismissed, as were several of the claims in Lively’s suit, ahead of the ultimate settlement.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
