Published May 08, 2026
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively might have settled their case in court but the lingering drama continues behind-the-scenes as their legal teams take jabs against each other.
Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman publicly took a dig against the Gossip Girl actress, claiming that she was “scared” to testify in trial which is why she agreed to settle.
“Part of the reason Blake settled is because she was scared to take the witness stand at trial. She did not want to face cross-examination by anyone because that would require her to tell the truth,” Freedman told TMZ.
The lawyer continued, “Blake lied about telling Sony to destroy the dailies. She lied that she never told [It Ends With Us author] Colleen Hoover to unfollow Justin Baldoni. In her deposition, Colleen said Blake asked her to unfollow him. And there were more lies.”
Freedman went on to launch another attack as he said, “Bottom line, Blake filed a claim for $300 million and she ended up with nothing. If this is a resounding victory, what does a defeat look like?”
The attorney challenged Lively’s intentions for the case, saying, “If she’s doing this for survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment and retaliation, as she says, then why don’t you take the stand at trial and prove it to the world? A trial would have exposed her lies and the entire smear she was talking about in her interviews that she did.”
Lively’s team did not stay silent over the comments, and in response, told the outlet that they “guess” Baldoni is “no longer ‘ecstatic’ about the settlement.”