Ah, there was life before the Blake Lively v Justin Baldoni legal mayhem – and there is life after. The drama between the two It Ends With Us co-stars has been rumbling on since last summer, when feud rumours emerged during the Colleen Hoover adaptation’s press tour. The pair didn’t follow each other on Instagram. They kept their distance on red carpets. Then, Baldoni hired Johnny Depp’s crisis management PR firm, which was a bigger clue than any that something was up.

By Christmas, things had taken a turn for the more disturbing when Lively filed a lawsuit claiming Baldoni had exhibited behavior that caused her “severe emotional distress” while working on It Ends With Us. The filing referenced a meeting in which Lively asked Baldoni, in the presence of his lawyers, to no longer show her “nude videos or images of women” , no longer mention his alleged “pornography addiction” and cease discussing sexual conquests in front of her. Other banned topics included: the cast and crew’s genitalia, Blake’s weight, and her dead father, Ernie, who passed away aged 74 in 2021.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Lively requested Baldoni add no more “sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing” to the script outside what she had previously agreed to when signing the project. Sony Pictures approved Lively’s requests. However, the Gossip Girl star claims that, after the meeting, Baldoni began a campaign to “destroy” her reputation in response.

Four months prior, a 2016 interview Lively did with Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa had resurfaced, leading to an online onslaught. In the same week, the star faced backlash for promoting a hair care range instead of discussing domestic abuse during the film’s press tour.

Following the criticism, Lively shared a message to her Instagram stories, acknowledging that “one in four women aged 18 and older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.”

Baldoni’s lawyers have always denied Lively’s claims, responding that her allegations are “false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt”. The star officially filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni and his PR team of concocting a scheme to torpedo her reputation in revenge for her speaking up against his inappropriate behaviour in January.

A matter of weeks later, Baldoni countersued Lively for allegedly attempting to “destroy” his reputation and career with her allegations.

Which brings us here. The case is scheduled to go to trial in March, 2026. Lively has publicly declared women, aside from her, are willing to testify against Baldoni. Her team has subpoenaed the actor’s phone records, and both she and her husband, Ryan Reynolds have moved to dismiss Baldoni’s counter lawsuit, which Lively described as “vengeful and rambling”.

Yet, this month, Lively surprisingly abandoned her claims that Baldoni had inflicted “emotional distress” on her during the production of It Ends With Us. The move appeared to come after Baldoni’s lawyers attempted to obtain Lively’s medical records, including her therapy notes and other health records, as part of the suit’s “discovery process” – an invasive but regular practice in both the US and the UK.

Baldoni’s legal team, acting on behalf of his company Wayfarer Studios, had filed a ruling asking Lively to sign a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) release that would allow them to dive into her medical history. Rather than complying with the intrusive request, Lively’s team told Baldoni’s that she would be withdrawing her infliction of emotional distress claims, instead.

Baldoni’s legal team heavily criticised Lively for the decision as she opted to withdraw the claims without prejudice, rather than with, meaning they can be visited again at a later date, if she so chooses.

“Ms. Lively wants to simultaneously: (a) refuse to disclose the information and documents needed to disprove that she suffered any emotional distress and/or that the Wayfarer Parties were the cause; and (b) maintain the right to refile her IED Claims at an unknown time in this or some other court after the discovery window has closed,” Baldoni’s lawyers said.

Meanwhile, Variety reported that Lively’s lawyers, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, explained they were simply trying to streamline Lively’s increasingly sprawling legal case with the move, which has sent the entire internet into a tailspin – rather than backtrack on her distress claims entirely.

“The Baldoni-Wayfarer strategy of filing retaliatory claims has exposed them to expansive new damages claims under California law, rendering certain of Ms. Lively’s original claims no longer necessary,” they told the outlet, specifying: “Ms. Lively continues to allege emotional distress, as part of numerous other claims in her lawsuit, such as sexual harassment and retaliation, and massive additional compensatory damages on all of her claims.” Who knows what will have happened by 9 March, 2026.