The comedian previously joked about the legal battle while hosting the 2025 Critics Choice Awards
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(Left-right:) Chelsea Handler; Blake Lively; Justin Baldoni. Photo:
David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty; Jeff Spicer/Getty; Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty
Chelsea Handler is further weighing in on Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s ongoing legal conflict.
The comedian, 49, likened the public back-and-forth between the It Ends With Us costars to playground fighting in an interview with Page Six published Monday, Feb. 26.
“The reason it’s such a frenzy is that they keep releasing more and more stuff,” Handler said of Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 41. “Stop it. You’re not helping yourself.”
She added, “It’s like you have to break up a fight in a schoolyard playground. … It’s like, ‘Don’t they know to stop?’ Isn’t someone saying, ‘Stop it!’?’ ”
Handler, whose seventh book I’ll Have What She’s Having is out Feb. 25, previously commented on Lively and Baldoni’s legal drama while hosting this year’s Critics Choice Awards on Feb. 7.
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Chelsea Handler at the Critics Choice Awards on Feb. 7.
Kevin Winter/Getty
It’s important in difficult times “to have a distraction, and that’s why I want to personally extend my gratitude to Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively,” she joked onstage.
“I think we’re all grateful — and I think we’re good,” she continued. “I think everybody in this room, no matter whose side you’re on, we can all agree to accept that there’s probably not going to be a sequel.”
In December, Lively brought forth allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation when she sued her It Ends With Us director and costar Baldoni, plus his PR team and members of his production company Wayfarer Studios. Baldoni, who has denied those allegations, responded with a lawsuit of his own in January against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist and The New York Times, with defamation and extortion among the accusations.
Both Lively and Baldoni opted out of court mediation, indicating that they’ll go to trial with their March 2026 court date.
