The legal fallout from the highly acrimonious production of It Ends With Us has escalated into a fierce, multi-million dollar battle over attorney bills. Actor and director Justin Baldoni has officially fired back at co-star Blake Lively’s recent request to have him cover more than $8 million in legal expenses, calling the staggering sum “wildly overinflated” and “bloated”.
Following a settlement reached in May 2026 that averted a federal trial, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ruled that Lively was legally entitled to recover some of her defense costs under a California statute designed to protect harassment accusers from retaliatory defamation lawsuits. Following that ruling, Lively’s legal team filed a massive demand totaling $7,495,526.87 in attorney’s fees and $539,514.01 in litigation costs.
In court documents filed by Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, the defense argues that Lively is trying to make Baldoni pay for legal work that goes far beyond the scope of his dismissed defamation countersuit. “Lively’s fee request is so over-inclusive that it sweeps in fees for researching her own liability for perjury,” the filing states, noting that the actress has failed to present credible evidence justifying the eight-figure demand. Baldoni has asked the judge to deny the request outright, or in the alternative, slash the payout to a standard six-figure sum.
The aggressive courtroom opposition coincides with Baldoni and his wife, Emily, breaking their long-standing silence on the emotional toll of the year-long battle. In a personal five-minute video posted to Instagram, the director opened up about the “injustice and pain” his family has endured throughout the high-profile entertainment law dispute.
While Lively’s camp maintains that the fees are fully recoverable under statutory language because the court consolidated the cases, Baldoni’s legal team remains steadfast that the outcome is a win for their side. With the trial officially off the table, the ultimate decision on exactly how many millions Baldoni must write a check for now rests entirely in the hands of the federal judge.
