Blake Lively will receive $400,000 in legal fees from Justin Baldoni in their bitter lawsuit – after demanding an eye-watering $8 million following their settlement, the Daily Mail can reveal.
In the latest humiliation for the actress, a New York judge ruled Wednesday that she will receive just five percent of the amount she sought to defend Baldoni’s $400 million defamation lawsuit.
Lively, 38, agreed in May this year to settle her case against Baldoni, 42, after a New York judge dismissed most of her claims.
Judge Lewis Liman had previously dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively, but he did allow her to seek legal fees related solely to defending that action.
The alleged harassment took place on the set of the film It Ends With Us, which they both starred in and which Baldoni directed.
In an order, Judge Lewis Liman said: “The clerk is respectfully directed to enter judgment against Lively in the amount of $363,245.40 in attorneys’ fees and $44,206.35 in costs.”
Blake Lively receives almost $400
Justin Baldoni had Blake Lively’s demand for $8.3 million in legal fees dismissed as ‘deeply flawed’ in their battle over her sexual harassment claims
The total of $407,451.75 is a fraction of the colossal sums Lively sought from the court.
She had alleged that Baldoni owed her $7,495,526.87 in fees and $539,514.01 in costs during the 10 months she spent defending herself against his lawsuit before Judge Liman dismissed it.
But Judge Liman appears to agree with Baldoni’s lawyers that the amounts Lively requested were “excessive” and “exorbitant,” as they claimed in legal documents.
Court documents showed that Lively’s attorneys charged $155 for a six-minute phone call and $1,400 for an attorney to stay one night at a five-star hotel.
Lively sued Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment on the set of the film and defamation.
Baldon retaliated in the following months with a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and the New York Times, which first published her claims.
In October 2025, a judge dismissed Baldoni’s case and in May of this year, after a judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, she agreed to settle her claim.
Last month, Lively revealed in court filings how much she was demanding: $4,544,094 from Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher and $2,951,432 from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, two high-profile law firms.
However, the final bill will be $300,000 higher due to costs related to a recent hearing on June 1, bringing it to $8.3 million.
