CNN
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In the latest development in the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, Lively’s lawyers Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb have confirmed that the actress intends to take the stand when the case heads to trial next year.
“This is a case about what happened to Blake Lively when she raised claims of sexual harassment on set and the retaliation that followed. Of course she will testify,” Hudson and Gottlieb said in a statement to CNN on Thursday.
Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and retaliation in a complaint first filed with the California Civil Rights Department in December, preceding a lawsuit that followed about a week later. She also claimed that Baldoni, along with his PR representatives, orchestrated a “social manipulation campaign” to hurt her reputation in the media while they were promoting “It Ends with Us,” their 2024 film at the center of the dispute.
First reported by People, Gottlieb said on Thursday that Lively plans to testify because “the ultimate moment for a plaintiff’s story to be told is at trial.”
“We expect that to be the case here (with Lively),” he added. “So we would, of course, expect her to be a witness at her trial.”
When reached for comment on Thursday, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman said, “Although obviously uncomfortable for the Lively parties, the truth is not a distraction. The truth has been clearly shown through unedited receipts, documents and real life footage.”
In an amended complaint filed in February, Lively alleged other women also raised claims about Baldoni’s behavior on set.
Freedman previously denied the allegations in a statement to CNN, saying, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Gottlieb stopped short of confirming whether Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds will testify at trial, saying that it’s his belief that Baldoni’s allegations against Reynolds are “frivolous.”
Along with Lively, Reynolds is named as a defendant in the $400 million defamation lawsuit Baldoni filed in January.
Baldoni has accused Reynolds of assisting Lively in “hijacking” his film and taking down his career. He claimed that Reynolds, who had no formal role on “It Ends With Us,” re-wrote a scene and made “unauthorized changes to the script in secret.” Baldoni also accused Reynolds of reprimanding him at the couple’s home in New York and alleged Reynolds made fun of him in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” mirroring the character Nicepool after Baldoni in an effort to mock him.
In March, Gottlieb 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, Gottlieb added.
There are other individuals who will be testifying at trial to support Lively’s claims, said Gottlieb, adding that these individuals “were witnesses to or experienced misconduct that is relevant to Ms. Lively’s claims” and that he expects these witnesses to testify about “what took place on set.”
Baldoni also accused Lively in his defamation suit of working to “destroy” him professionally by collaborating with the New York Times on an article about the complaint she filed with the California Civil Rights Department in December.
Baldoni, who directed and starred alongside Lively in “It Ends with Us,” also filed a libel suit against the New York Times in January, in which he claimed that the newspaper published an article “rife with inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and omissions.”
A spokesperson for The New York Times told CNN at the time that the publication plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
Both Baldoni and Lively’s attorneys have previously said that they do not intend to settle. The trial is currently set for March 2026.
