
Key Points
Justin Baldoni made a rare public appearance in the Dancing With the Stars ballroom on Tuesday.
Entertainment Weekly spotted the actor in attendance with his family.
Tuesday marks one of his first public outings since his lengthy legal battle with Blake Lively.
Justin Baldoni is a Dancing With the Stars fan — who knew?
Eagle-eyed viewers spotted Baldoni in the DWTS ballroom on Tuesday, sitting alongside wife Emily and their two kids, Maiya, 11, and Maxwell, 8. Entertainment Weeklyspotted the family looking for their seats ahead of “Super Bowl Night,” featuring guest judge and sports commentator Joe Buck.
Page Sixreported on Tuesday that Baldoni attended DWTS in support of the show’s cohost Julianne Hough, whom he’s been friends with for years. Prior to her DWTS cohosting gig, which kicked off with Alfonso Ribeiro in 2023, Hough appeared in Baldoni’s 2016 My Last Days docuseries.
Baldoni’s rare public appearance comes after his lengthy legal battle with It Ends With Uscostar Blake Lively came to an end earlier this year. The actors costarred in the movie, based on the book of the same name by Colleen Hoover, which was released in August 2024. By December of that year, Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department. The Gossip Girlalum also alleged that Baldoni coordinated a social media smear campaign against her.
The Jane the Virginalum retaliated by suing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million. Baldoni’s suit was thrown out by a Manhattan Federal District Court judge in June 2025.
Lively and Baldoni eventually settled their lengthy legal battle this past May, just weeks before they were set to go to trial. Entertainment Weekly confirmed in August that Lively was awarded $407,000 in legal fees and costs. She was initially asking for $8 million in her suit against Baldoni, which his legal team deemed as “excessive.”
Lively’s attorneys Esra Hudson and Michael Gottlieb shared a statement with EW on Aug. 26.
“Justin Baldoni and the Wayfarer Parties lost their meritless retaliatory $400 million lawsuit, which two different courts held was designed to stifle public criticism and silence Blake Lively and others,” they said, in part. “This first-ever award of fees and costs under this California law is historic, and demonstrates that there are real consequences of bringing retaliatory lawsuits.”
They noted that the suit was “never about money – it was about accountability,” as they continued. “She lifted the curtain for other victims, and set the precedent for others to come forward and expose similar conduct. This result demonstrates that the legal system is not as easily manipulated as social media, and still functions as a force for accountability.”

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, also responded.
“Today’s ruling speaks for itself. Judge Liman clearly considered the ‘outrageous and unreasonable’ $8 million plus demand and, in rejecting it, awarded only five percent of the amount sought in legal fees and costs,” his statement to EW read, in part. “The ruling is a significant victory for my clients and sends a clear message that, no matter how powerful you may be, the courtroom is not a place to take advantage of the law for your own personal gain.”
New episodes ofDancing With the Stars season 35 premiere on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly

