Blake Lively confirms Ryan Reynolds on witness list as Justin Baldoni seeks to muzzle celebrity testimonies

Blake Lively suffered a significant setback when a judge threw out 10 of her 13 claims against It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, but she has another secret weapon – her husband Ryan Reynolds.

The actress has added Reynolds to her already lengthy witness list as the contentious case proceeds to trial on May 18.

In court documents filed on Saturday, Lively named the witnesses she wants to testify and the Deadpool star will play a pivotal role, per People.

Reynolds has been deeply committed to supporting his wife as she gears up to face Baldoni in court.

According to the outlet, the actor, 49, is expected to testify about production and promotion issues, and the alleged retaliation and damages that have been the focal point of the case, having witnessed first-hand the drama as it played out.

Lively, 38, is also expected to testify along with Baldoni, 42, when the legal showdown begins. Both rejected efforts to settle the lawsuit earlier this week.

Others on Lively's witness list include her sister, Robyn Lively, and her It Ends With Us co-stars, Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer.

She also has selected some of Baldoni's associates to testify and corroborate her claims including his former podcast co-host, Liz Plank, and his former publicist, Stephanie Jones, along with his PR crisis manager, Melissa Nathan.

Colleen Hoover, who wrote the bestselling book on which the movie was based, has been named as a potential witness in the legal dispute between the film's stars. Her testimony is expected to be presented via deposition rather than in-person testimony.

The author initially showed support for Lively in December 2024 when the actress' allegations were made public, but she has since back-stepped and taken a more neutral stance, saying the lawsuit has 'overshadowed' her contemporary romance novel.

'I'm almost embarrassed to say I wrote it. When people ask what I do, I'm just like, "I'm a writer. Please don't ask me what I wrote,"' she told Elle in an interview published in November 2025.

Meanwhile, Baldoni wants to muzzle Hoover and Slate and others on Lively's witness list, calling their alleged experiences a 'grab bag of awkward comments, minor confrontations, and perceived slights would have been inadmissible even if Lively’s sexual harassment claims proceeded to trial,' per TMZ.

Baldoni said Hoover's testimony should be stricken from the evidence because the writer was never on the set of It Ends With Us.

As for Slate, he reasoned her complaints about him should be barred since any issues she had were resolved at the time.

Slate gave a deposition in September 2025 in which she claimed, among other things, that he told her she looked 'sexy' on their second day of filming.

Baldoni argued that Plank's supposed evidence should be ignored because she had nothing to do with the film, and Ferrer made no complaints to Baldoni's Wayfarer production company and heaped praise on Baldoni and the intimacy coordinator, according to the news outlet.

Meanwhile, TMZ reported that lawyers for both sides have worked up a list of questions to ask potential jurors including, 'Do you know any of the following people that you may hear from or about over the course of the trial?' 

Taylor Swift, Lively's friend who is reportedly not so close to her now, is on the list along with Reynolds, Slate, Hoover, Lively's sister Robyn and Hasan Minhaj, who played Baldoni's character's brother-in-law in It Ends With Us.  

Lively's legal battle with Baldoni started in December 2024 after she alleged that her leading man and director sexually harassed her and developed a smear campaign with the other defendants 'to destroy' her reputation, claims which Baldoni denied.

On April 2, a federal judge in New York threw out 10 of Lively's 13 claims including sexual harassment, defamation and conspiracy. Retaliation and breach of contract claims remain in the lawsuit.