The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni that began with their movie “It Ends With Us” just got messier, and now Britney Spears is caught in the middle. The feud between Lively and Baldoni has already captured a lot of public attention and set up different camps within Hollywood, as well as in their fan bases, but things have escalated.
New reports say Lively’s lawyers plan to use an old video of Baldoni talking about Britney Spears as part of their case when they head to court.
Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni: Britney Spears’ development in their legal battle
According to the latest information, reported by Page Six, Lively’s legal team may decide to show a 2017 video in which Baldoni shares a story about meeting Spears on the set of “Jane the Virgin.” In the clip, Baldoni admits that he walked up to Spears, hugged her tightly out of excitement, and immediately felt concerned that he had crossed a line.
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Justin Baldoni reacts to Blake Lively’s lawsuit taking a big hit in the courtroom
The conversation went as follows.“I went up to her with the idea that we were friends,” he said, laughing. “We weren’t.”“And I went over and gave her… I said, ‘Hey!’ and I gave her a really big hug and I think I scared her, because she was like, ‘Hey,’ and I had this awkward moment, like, ‘Did I just harass Britney Spears?’” he joked in the interview, clearly a little embarrassed.For the unversed, Baldoni played Rafael Solano on The CW’s Jane the Virgin, which ran for five seasons from 2014 to 2019, and Spears guest-starred in an episode during the series’ second season, playing an exaggerated version of herself.
Now, Baldoni originally told this story with some humor and self-awareness. But Lively’s lawyers believe it could help paint a picture. They want to argue that Baldoni is admitting to past behavior that, to say the least, appears inappropriate. If they succeed, this could back up Lively’s claims about how he acted on the set of “It Ends With Us.”The Daily Mail reported that Lively will try to convince the jury that Baldoni’s embrace with Spears shows a pattern, from how he treated Spears to how he treated her.
Lively’s big accusation is that Baldoni sexually harassed her during filming in 2024, but a judge already dismissed that part of her lawsuit this month.
Legal battles ‘end with us’: How did they start?
For the unversed, the legal battle for “It Ends With Us” began in 2024 when Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, her star and director in the film.In 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, claiming that he sexually harassed her, entered her trailer when she was dressed, forced her into intimate scenes that were not in the script, and touched her in ways she did not want.
She says that when she spoke out, she was punished for it, through newspaper articles and a campaign against her.Baldoni denied everything, saying there was no harassment, just creative differences and perhaps a misunderstanding or two that were fixed.In April 2026, federal judge Louis Lehman dismissed 10 of Lively’s 13 claims, including all of her sexual harassment claims, leaving only three claims to proceed to trial. Lively’s case now revolves around three issues: breach of contract, retaliation, and aiding in retaliation. So, at this point, the case is less about what happened between Lively and Baldoni on set, and more about what Lively says happened after she filed her complaints, particularly whether Baldoni or his team tried to damage her reputation or career.After the April 2026 hearing, a trial date in New York is set for May 18, 2026.