BLAKE VS. JUSTIN Inside the Aftermath

The legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is finally coming to a close. Insiders and legal and PR experts tell Us where the stars go from here

- by JAIME HARKIN, Brody Brown, Christina Garibaldi, Paola Leva, Andrea Simpson and Whitney Vasquez

After 18 months of seemingly endless PR mudslinging and more than 1,400 court filings, the bitter legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni appears to finally — mercifully — be winding down. In early May, two weeks before their high-profile trial was set to start, attorneys announced they'd settled the case out of court. On June 12, Judge Lewis Liman ordered Baldoni to pay Lively’s legal fees under a California law created to shield sexual harassment victims from retaliatory defamation claims but denied her request to pursue damages.

As of press time, Judge Liman had yet to determine the amount Baldoni, 42, will need to pay Lively, 38. In the meantime, sources tell Us both stars are doing their best to move on with their lives following one of Hollywood's ugliest and most polarizing feuds. "Justin's focus is on his family and living in the moment," says one source. The Jane the Virgin alum is dad to daughter Maiya, 11, and son Maxwell, 8, with his wife of nearly 13 years, Emily Baldoni. "He wants to get back to some sense of normalcy for them." Lively, who shares daughters James, 11, Inez, 9, and Betty, 6, and son Olin, 3, with husband Ryan Reynolds, has her sights set on returning to work. "Blake is focused on rebuilding her career," a second source says. "She's confident she can come back from this."

UPHILL BATTLE