Blake Lively is continuing to move forward after suffering a major blow in her ongoing lawsuit against her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni.
“Momming always continues on,” the actress, 38, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Sunday, April 5, over a photo of two plates of scrambled eggs formed in the shape of two bunnies. (Lively shares four children with her husband, Ryan Reynolds.)
The celebratory Easter post comes just days after Lively suffered a significant legal blow in her lawsuit against Baldoni, 42. On Thursday, April 2, federal judge Lewis Liman dismissed 10 of the 13 claims in Lively’s lawsuit against the director, including allegations of harassment, defamation and conspiracy.
The Manhattan U.S. District Judge allowed just three claims to proceed — breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting in retaliation.
“This case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial,” Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, told Us Weekly in a statement shortly after the ruling. “For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable for other women they’ve targeted.”
The lawyer continued, “She looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.”
One day later, Lively issued her own social media statement responding to the Judge’s ruling.
“I am grateful for the Court’s ruling which allows the heart of my case to be presented to a jury next month, and for the ability to finally tell my story in full at trial, for my own sake, but also for those who don’t have the same opportunity to … many of whom I have known and loved deeply in my life, and the countless I’ll never know,” she wrote on Friday, April 3. “The last thing I wanted in my life was a lawsuit, but I brought this case because of the pervasive RETALIATION I faced, and continued to, for privately and professionally asking for a safe working environment for myself and others.”
She added later in her social media statement, “So much critical work has already been done to expose systems, tactics and players who harm. The work to create more safety is in part at trial, but it will also continue far after this trial is over. This is the work I’m most proud of. I couldn’t begin to stand up if not for the countless who’ve gone before me – and the masses who are still around us all — creating laws, social change, sparking conversations, rallying, working privately and publicly, risking and sometimes losing everything for the safety of others in all spaces. Some whose names we know, most we don’t. Thank you. All of you.”
Baldoni’s legal team also issued a statement in the wake of the Judge’s decision, telling Us that they were “pleased” by the ruling.
“We’re very pleased the Court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel,” the statement read. “These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the Court for its careful review of the facts, law and voluminous evidence that was provided.”
Lively’s legal team later disputed some of Baldoni’s lawyers’ comments, telling Us that the “Court actually decided” to allow the evidence Lively provided “to go to trial on her core claims.”
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