Just days after her 39th birthday, Blake Lively received news that would end her two-year legal battle with Justin Baldoni and Wayfarer.
Lively was awarded just over $400,000 (R6,384,120), five percent of the $8 million (R127,682,400) she wanted from Baldoni for her legal fees.
According to The Guardian, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman found that Lively was entitled to only ‘reasonable’ fees, and that the number of hours for which Lively seeks reimbursement is unreasonable.
People reports that the judge also said: ‘Media relations were not integral to defending the defamation claim brought against Lively. Accordingly, time spent on media relations and press coverage is not compensable.”
In July Baldoni and his wife Emily finally broke their silence after a largely successful fight against Lively.
In a heartfelt video, the couple spoke about their lives through the legal battle, saying that they were silent because they ‘didn’t want to add to the noise‘, and thanked their supporters.
“There were so many of you who, when we didn’t have a voice, were our voice… you have given your time to fight for us, and thank you does not feel like enough, but we’re here, in large part, like because of so many of you and all of our friends and family, and one thing that we’ve learned is that when when God presses the reset button and when everything else is stripped away, that that’s when love shows up,” said Baldoni.