We might have to wait until next year for the legal battle between It Ends With Us co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni to play out in court, but Lively’s lawyers have confirmed she will take the stand.

‘This is a case about what happened to Blake Lively when she raised claims of sexual harassment on set and the retaliation that followed,’ Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb said in a statement to CNN. ‘Of course she will testify.’ Gottlieb went on to add, ‘the ultimate moment for a plaintiff’s story to be told is at trial’, so it was never a question as to whether Lively would testify.

The news comes shortly after Lively appeared as a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers and spoke publicly about the case for the first time. ‘What I can say, without going too into it, is that this year has been full of the highest highs and the lowest lows of my life. I see so many women around afraid to speak, especially right now, afraid to share their experiences and fear is by design. It’s what keeps us silent, but I also acknowledge that many people don’t have the opportunity to speak, so I do feel fortunate that I’ve been able to.’

‘It’s the women who have had the opportunity to use their voice that’s kept me strong and, you know, helped me in my belief and my fight for the world to be safer for women and girls,’ she continued. ‘It’s a pretty simple thing.’

For those who need reminding, at the end of December, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni alleging sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us and accused him and his PR team of launching a calculated smear campaign against her during the press run of the film. Baldoni not only denied all the allegations, but he filed a counter lawsuit accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds of defamation, false light invasion of privacy and civil extortion. He also filed a defamation lawsuit again The New York Times, where Lively’s account was first published, alleging that they printed a ‘biased, one-sided account’ of what happened.

In the months that followed, both sides have leveraged new claims, published various text conversations about behind the scenes video footage hoping to prove their version of events. While it is by no means for social media users to decide what did or did not happen, try as they might, the jury is out in the court of public opinion.

For that reason, any time Lively, Baldoni or their respective legal teams makes a play in the public domain – as Lively arguably did on Seth Meyers – it reignites the conversation surrounding the saga.

As for Baldoni, his lawyer Bryan Freedman responded to the news that Lively will testify in court saying: ‘Although obviously uncomfortable for the Lively parties, the truth is not a distraction. The truth has clearly been shown through unedited receipts, documents and real-life footage.’

He could indeed be referring to the decision taken by Baldoni’s team in February to publish his lawsuit online. The documents, comprised of more than 100 pages, include text message threads, email exchanges and context with the intention of refuting Lively’s claims. This was the same month Lively amended her complaint alleging that other women also raised claims about Baldoni’s behaviour on set. Freedman called these claims ‘completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious’.

Of course, the saga has not just played out between Lively and Baldoni. Reynolds is also named as a defendant in Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit (£301m) and has been accused of attempting to ‘bully’ Baldoni via the Nicepool character in his film Deadpool & Wolverine. Baldoni has reportedly requested documentation from Marvel and Disney to prove that Nicepool – a faux feminist with a man bun who makes inappropriate comments towards Lively’s character, Ladypool – was created to publicly mock him. Reynolds has not publicly responded to the latter claims.

Gottlieb, however, refrained from confirming whether Reynolds will also testify at trial, saying that Baldoni’s allegations against Reynolds are ‘frivolous’. In March, the lawyer filed a request for Reynolds to be dropped as a defendant from Baldoni’s suit, claiming that his argument against Reynolds has no legal bounds and amounts to ‘hurt feelings’.

If Reynolds is dropped as a defendant, then, he ‘may or may not be a fact witness’ at trial, added Gottlieb. The lawyer confirmed there will be other individuals who will testify in court to support Lively’s claims, without specifying who they are, and said they ‘were witnesses to or experienced misconduct that is relevant to Ms. Lively’s claims’ and he expects them to go into detail about ‘what took place on set’.

There is still a long road ahead and both Baldoni and Lively’s legal teams have made it clear that they have no intention of settling or adjusting their demands. The trial is due to begin in March 2026.