Blake Lively stepped out in New York City on Tuesday, hours after political commentator Candace Owens directed a social media jab at the actress.
Lively, 39, was seen delivering a cup of coffee to her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, who was waiting inside his car.
The Gossip Girl star wore a grey knit cardigan and a matching skirt. She paired the outfit with $950 mesh Marcy ballet flats by Khaite and a $6,700 burgundy suede Chanel bucket bag from the brand's Fall/Winter 2026 pre-collection.
Lively wore her blonde hair straight with a side part. She accessorized with Chanel sunglasses, a heart-shaped necklace and a sapphire ring.
Owens, 37, had earlier shared a selfie to her Instagram Stories posing with Justin Baldoni, Lively's co-star in the film It Ends With Us. The post was accompanied by the Taylor Swift song My Tears Ricochet.
"There was an approximate 1 in 100 million chance that I ran into Justin Baldoni at an airport in Iceland on a Friday afternoon," Owens wrote in the caption. "Just incredible."
Owens added the hashtag #Cousins, writing: "NOBODY messes with my cousin."
One social media user responded to the post, writing: "Now Candace that's just messy.. got Taylor playing in the background."
Reynolds, 49, later attended the premiere of his new comedy movie Mayday at the AMC Lincoln Square theater without Lively.
The actor wore a grey suit paired with white sneakers. He was joined at the event by actors Maria Bakalova and Sir Kenneth Branagh.
Defamation lawsuit
The New York outing preceded a Wednesday court ruling that awarded Lively five percent of the legal fees she sought after defending herself against a $400 million defamation lawsuit brought by Baldoni, 42.
In an order obtained by the Daily Mail, Judge Lewis Liman ruled: "The clerk of court is respectfully directed to enter judgment for Lively in the amount of $363,245.40 in attorneys' fees and $44,206.35 in costs."
The total is a fraction of the $8.3 million Lively had sought. The judge described the hours Lively billed for her lawyers as "unreasonable" and criticized the "discrepancies" in her claimed expenses.
Lively sued Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, in December 2024 for defamation and alleged sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us.
Baldoni responded the following month with a $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, Reynolds and the New York Times, which was the first publication to report her claims.
Judge Liman dismissed Baldoni's case in October of last year. In May of this year, after the judge dismissed the majority of Lively's claims, the two actors agreed to a settlement with no money changing hands. The agreement came two weeks before the case was set to go to trial.
Legal expenses
Judge Liman permitted Lively to seek legal fees solely related to her defense against the defamation countersuit.
Lively submitted court filings last month detailing her demands. She sought $4,544,094 from the law firm Wilkie, Farr & Gallagher and $2,951,432 from Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Costs related to a June 1 hearing added $300,000 to the total bill.
The film at the center of the legal dispute, It Ends With Us, earned $148 million at the domestic box office and $350 million globally. The Swift track used in the social media post by Owens was featured in the movie. Lively and Swift were close friends before a high profile falling out.
The Wednesday court ruling coincided with Lively's birthday. Reynolds marked the occasion with a post describing her as a "courageous and deeply kind genius." The couple met on the set of the film Green Lantern in 2010 and started dating in October 2011. They married in South Carolina on September 9, 2012, and share four children: James, 11, Inez, nine, Betty, six, and Olin, three.
