As Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni inch closer towards a jury trial to resolve their legal dispute dating back to December 2024, when the actress alleged her It Ends With Us director and co-star sexually harassed her and later orchestrated a retaliatory smear campaign to destroy her reputation, we now know what she will be asking the jury to award her.
Baldoni has denied the allegations and filed his own lawsuit against Lively that was later dismissed, so all that remains to be settled is a very slimmed down version of the Gossip Girl star’s complaint because U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman dismissed 10 of her 13 claims – including sexual harassment, defamation, and conspiracy – earlier this month.
Only Lively’s accusations of breach of contract and retaliation will move forward to trial, and yet court filings reveal she is seeking significant financial damages – to the tune of nearly $300 million – for that narrowed down complaint.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Zack Peter, host of No Filter with Zack Peter, to discuss what she is requesting in damages and what is likely to happen at next month’s trial.
The Filing
In a filing submitted April 11, Lively’s team laid out that she is looking for $296 million to compensate for the “mean girl” and “bully” labels she says she suffered due to Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign against her.
According to Lively, this cost her lost earnings between $41 and $87 million; lost profits on her businesses between $39 and $143 million; pain, suffering, and humiliation in the range of $250,000 to $400,000; reputational harm attributed to alleged defamation to the tune of about $24 million; and other reputational harm in an amount of approximately $36 to $40 million.
Additionally, she is seeking punitive damages and wants all attorneys fees and costs paid for by Baldoni because she says he created an image of her as a bully, a mean girl, and “tone deaf” and that is all attributable to his alleged retaliatory campaign against her for complaining about sexual harassment on the set of their movie It Ends With Us.
Trial Troubles
As Megyn reported last week, Lively’s legal team has reportedly been begging the court to exclude evidence and testimony that make her look like a “mean girl” and “bully,” which Peter said just speaks to her complete lack of self awareness.
“I used to know people that used to work at her Preserve company, and they’ve never had stellar stories to share about their experience working for her. And even her career in Hollywood was never stellar,” he explained. “She was always known as somebody that was difficult to work with. Those rumors were always following her. She was lucky to find someone like Ryan Reynolds, who was so likable and charismatic and funny.”
While he believes Reynolds testifying at trial would “probably [be] her best asset,” Peter said Lively taking the stand herself would have the opposite effect. “Where she’s really going to hurt is when she has to sit… in front of the jury and testify before them because she thinks that she’s likable, and I believe that she believes that in her head,” he said. “But when the jury actually sees her, ‘tone deaf’ is going to land. They are going to actually see her in her own words.”
Megyn has maintained that the best outcome for everyone involved would be a pre-trial settlement. But since that looks impossible at this point, she agreed with Peter that Lively is going to have a rough go of it.
“She is going to take the stand and [Baldoni’s attorney] Bryan Freedman is going to eat her for lunch… It’s going to be awful for her and for her reputation,” she noted. “I know of what I speak because not only is he my long-term personal lawyer and friend, he cross-examined me. That’s how we met. He was opposing counsel in this dispute I had with a former agent… My point is simply, he is going to go for it and she’s not going to enjoy it.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Peter by tuning in to episode 1,303 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.