Following the bruising "It Ends With Us" legal saga, Blake Lively has reportedly parted ways with longtime publicist Leslie Sloane, with new court filings exposing an alleged smear campaign, ghost servers and six-figure crisis PR spending. Insiders say the split marks the fallout of a scorched-earth Hollywood PR war.
Page Six first reported on September 29 that Lively had cut ties with Sloane after more than two decades. Three sources confirmed the split to the outlet. Lively hired Sloane in the early days of her "Gossip Girl" fame, when Sloane was working at the PR firm Baker Winokur Ryder. Sloane is widely credited with helping propel Lively to stardom, and when she launched her own firm, Vision PR, in 2014, Lively followed her as a client. Vision PR has since represented names including Katie Holmes, Uma Thurman and Chris Rock.
Sloane became entangled in Lively's legal war with Justin Baldoni. After Lively sued Baldoni in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a retaliatory smear campaign on the "It Ends With Us" set, Baldoni responded in January 2025 with a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, Sloane and Vision PR. He accused Sloane of planting negative stories about him in the press. Sloane denied the allegations, and a federal judge dismissed Baldoni's claims against Lively, Reynolds and Sloane in June 2025. The court threw out most of Lively's own claims in April 2026, and the matter concluded in an out-of-court settlement in May 2026, just two weeks before the scheduled trial.
The 18-month court battle reportedly cost the co-stars a combined $60 million in legal fees. Lively sought more than $8 million in costs from Baldoni and was awarded roughly $407,000. Page Six reported that Sloane was let go after the backlash over the litigation, and reported on Wednesday that Lively has signed with Kelly Bush Novak of ID — the firm whose roster includes Christopher Nolan, Lady Gaga and Serena Williams — to lead her publicity going forward.
The change keeps her core representation at WME and Entertainment 360 intact while aiming to refocus her public image after the litigation fallout. Since the settlement, Lively has appeared in "Another Simple Favor," the sequel to her earlier collaboration with director Paul Feig and co-star Anna Kendrick. For a star whose publicist had been a constant for more than 20 years, the split is one of the most visible personal shake-ups yet to emerge from Hollywood's messiest recent legal battle.