Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni legal affairs may be spilling some tea for public, soon.
The actress may have secured a protective order in her ongoing legal battle with Baldoni, but that doesn’t mean all private details will stay under wraps.
A federal judge granted the Gossip Girl alum, 37, a modified protective order on Thursday, but The Daily Mail reports that the court significantly narrowed the restrictions she initially sought.
While both Lively and Baldoni’s legal teams can mark certain sensitive documents as “Attorneys’ Eyes Only” (AEO), there’s no guarantee those materials will remain confidential if the case proceeds to trial.
Translation?
If Lively and Baldoni, 41, don’t settle out of court, much of the information could become public record. As one source put it, “very few secrets” will remain hidden, and “everything will come out at trial anyway.”
According to PEOPLE, Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled that the AEO designation could only apply if disclosing the material was “highly likely to cause a significant business, commercial, financial or privacy injury.”
Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, expressed satisfaction with the ruling, telling The Daily Mail, “We are fully in agreement with the Court’s decision to provide a narrow scope of protections to categories such as private mental health records and personal security measures that have never been of interest to us, as opposed to Ms. Lively’s exceedingly over-broad demand for documents for a 2.5-year period of time, which the court rightly quashed.”
He added, “We remain focused on the necessary communications that will directly contradict Ms. Lively’s unfounded accusations.”
A spokesperson for Lively, however, saw the ruling differently, telling the outlet, “Today, the Court rejected the Wayfarer Parties’ objections and entered the protections needed to ensure the free flow of discovery material without any risk of witness intimidation or harm to any individual’s security.
With this order in place, Ms. Lively will move forward in the discovery process to obtain even more of the evidence that will prove her claims in Court.”
Lively’s attorneys had previously raised concerns that without stronger protections, Baldoni might leak sensitive information to the press, including details about her security measures, medical history, and even private conversations with her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and their celebrity friends.
Baldoni’s attorneys, however, fired back, calling the claims “offensive” and arguing that Lively was essentially asking for a “different law” to shield high-profile figures.
The legal battle has already been tense, with Lively requesting a stronger protective order just weeks ago after allegedly receiving “violent” messages.
While both parties had previously agreed to a protective order, the actress has since pushed for additional safeguards beyond the court’s standard model.
As the case unfolds, one thing is clear—this courtroom drama is far from over, and if it heads to trial, expect some major revelations.
