Justin Baldoni asks judge to deny Blake Lively's $8 million legal fee request

Justin Baldoni has asked a judge to deny Blake Lively's request that he pay more than $8 million (£6 million) toward her legal bills over their It Ends with Us case.

In May, the actor-director and the former Gossip Girl actress announced that they had settled a lawsuit over allegations of smear campaigns and a hostile work environment on the set of the 2024 film. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

But the following month, Lively filed a request to a federal judge asking that she be awarded $8.04 million (£6.07 million) in legal fees and litigation costs following the dismissal of the defamation-related lawsuit brought against her by her It Ends with Us co-star and his production company, Wayfarer Studios.

And on Monday, Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, filed a motion asking the judge to either reduce or deny Lively's request.

"Lively's fee request is so over-inclusive that it sweeps in fees for researching her own liability for perjury arising from her California CRD claim and her Rule 11 motion for which the Court has already denied fees," the court filing reads, according to TMZ.

Representatives for Lively have not yet responded to the latest update.

In the original request, the A Simple Favor star's lawyers argued that the work involved in defending the lawsuit was "comprehensive and necessary to achieve the complete win that was secured", adding that the 38-year-old "has paid, and continues to pay" her legal bills.

Last week, Baldoni and his wife, Emily Baldoni, addressed the bitter legal battle for the first time in a video posted to social media.

"We have not spoken publicly for the better part of the last two years, and it's not because we haven't had anything to say," the 42-year-old stated. "Because lord knows we have, but it just felt like every time we went to make a video like this, we wanted to speak, something was telling us not to. It just didn't feel like the right time, and we were talking about it and feeling into it and praying about it."