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Nearly two months after Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settled their lawsuit, she is asking him for over $8 million in legal fees. The pair were in a lengthy legal battle following the filming of their movie It Ends With Us. A judge ruled that Baldoni must pay Lively’s legal fees. Now, she is asking for over $8 million. She noted that the tactics used by Baldoni intentionally tried to drain her resources. 

Lively and Baldoni settled their lawsuit in May. Reports say that neither side received a payout. In the aftermath, though, Lively’s lawyers said that Baldoni needed to pay her legal fees.

“By agreeing to this settlement, and waiving their right to appeal, Justin Baldoni and every individual defendant now face personal liability for abusing the legal system to silence and intimidate Ms. Lively,” her attorneys said in a statement (via Rolling Stone). “And by admitting that Ms. Lively’s concerns ‘deserved to be heard,’ the defendants have ended once and for all the fiction that Ms. Lively ‘fabricated’ claims of sexual harassment and retaliation.”

A judge agreed with this. In a filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Lively said Baldoni owes her $7,495,526.87 in attorney fees and $539,514.01 in additional costs. Lively’s lawyers said that their work was meticulous and time-intensive — and therefore costly — because “before this litigation began, Steve Sarowitz — the billionaire financier of Wayfarer Studios and Justin Baldoni — threatened that if Blake Lively ever ‘crossed the line,’ he would use his vast personal fortune to destroy Lively and her husband, comparing his plan to a holy war.”

They said that Baldoni’s lawyers intentionally tried to drain Lively of her resources.

“The Wayfarer Parties employed scorched-earth litigation tactics designed to drain Lively’s resources,” her lawyers claim, adding, “They could have ended it (and offered to reimburse Lively) at any time. Having refused to do so, they should be ordered to reimburse Lively for all of the costs, attorney’s fees, and expenses they improperly forced her to incur.”

After Lively and Baldoni settled their lawsuit, her team said that this was a major victory for her.

“This settlement is a resounding victory for Blake Lively,” Lively’s attorneys said in a statement, via People.

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Despite this, Baldoni’s lawyers also said the same thing.

“Let’s be clear, this is a win and total victory for the Wayfarer parties,” Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said. “The court had already dismissed 10 of Ms. Lively’s 13 claims, including every sexual harassment claim, every defamation claim, and all claims against the individual defendants. Ms. Lively voluntarily dismissed the rest. In our view, they settled because they knew they were going to lose in court. All that remains is a pending request for fees based on a very narrow issue that has been with the court since September 2025.”

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