Major Brands Got Cold Feet About Blake Lively, Emails Reveal

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni quietly settled their messy It Ends With Us legal fight this week, but a batch of documents tied to that case didn’t go away with it. Those records paint a pretty blunt picture of how the drama bled into Lively’s other business, Betty Booze, with big retail partners getting uneasy and sales chatter turning tense.

What the newly surfaced docs say

Us Weekly says it obtained emails and texts on Tuesday, May 5 (TMZ flagged the story first). The messages come from inside Lively’s alcohol brand and were part of the evidence she assembled for her case before the settlement. The short version: some partners were wary of working with her while headlines about the It Ends With Us dispute piled up after the film ’s December 2024 release.

• On September 10, 2024, a Betty Booze staff email recapped a call with an SGWS Kroger VP. The takeaway: Kroger had a 'negative taste' about the brand tied to a Blake Lively interview connected to the movie and planned to monitor Betty Booze sales closely. The email didn’t specify which interview.
• That same internal note also said Kroger was bracing for a potential dip and wanted to know what Lively would do to steady things with her audience.
• In a text from the VP of Food & Beverage at Princess Cruises, another Betty Booze partner, the exec said their legal and compliance board was 'spooked' about Lively but that they were trying to work it out and avoid fallout.
• Separate materials claimed Betty Booze was 'forced to go dark' in response to the headlines, which hurt sales, and that the brand’s once-positive social chatter slid into negative comments. They also say Instagram growth stalled thanks to the bad PR.

Us Weekly says it reached out to reps for both Lively, 38, and Baldoni, 42, for comment.

How we got here

Back in December 2024, Lively accused Baldoni of deliberately running a smear campaign against her and also alleged sexual harassment and a hostile work environment tied to their work on It Ends With Us. Baldoni denied all of it throughout, and he countersued, but that countersuit didn’t go anywhere.

This week, with a trial set to kick off on Monday, May 18, the two sides confirmed they settled on Monday, May 4. A federal judge, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, had urged them to try to resolve it before the court date.

'The end product - the movie It Ends With Us - is a source of pride to all of us who worked to bring it to life. Raising awareness, and making a meaningful impact in the lives of domestic violence survivors - and all survivors - is a goal that we stand behind. We acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns raised by Ms. Lively deserved to be heard.'

The business angle that raised eyebrows

Here’s the behind-the-scenes wrinkle: those Betty Booze emails and texts show how skittish major partners can get when controversy hits, even if the noise isn’t about the product itself. Kroger and Princess Cruises aren’t exactly fringe stockists, so their caution was a real problem. Lively’s filings also claim the damage wasn’t small; she pegged it at $161 million in losses linked to the legal saga’s ripple effects on her brand.

Where it lands

The film is out (December 2024 release) and the court fight is done (settled May 4), but the paperwork lingering from that battle offers a rare peek at how a celebrity legal blowup can make grocery chains and cruise lines start asking tough questions. Not dramatic, just practical: if the headlines are bad, are the sales about to be bad too?

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.