Justin Baldoni Debuts Drastic New Look In Hawaii Amid Blake Lively Drama

41-year-old actor and director Justin Baldoni is hitting refresh, both in look and mindset, as he steps away from the spotlight and into the Hawaiian sun following a tumultuous year of legal battles with "It Ends With Us" co-star Blake Lively.

Justin Baldoni was spotted over the weekend enjoying some downtime in the Aloha State with his two children, Maiya, 9, and Maxwell, 7.

In photos obtained by Page Six, Baldoni sported a new edgy hairstyle, a faux hawk with shaved sides, and kept it casual in a white tank top, blue swim trunks, sunglasses, and flip-flops as the trio grabbed shaved ice from a local shop.

While it’s unclear if his wife, Emily Baldoni, joined them for the island getaway, the family outing comes on the heels of Baldoni publicly acknowledging the toll that the past year has taken on his mental and emotional well-being.

“I told them that I wasn’t in the best place. I told them that I was exhausted, that I haven’t given myself time to recover or time to heal,” he shared during a "Gent’s Talk" podcast episode recorded in November 2024. “I had an intense year. A lot of material success and a lot of emotional stress. It was very hard on me and my family.”

Baldoni candidly revealed he’d been experiencing anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and generally not feeling like his “full self.”

Just a month after the interview was recorded, Blake Lively filed a bombshell lawsuit against him, alleging sexual harassment, retaliation, emotional distress, and invasion of privacy, among other claims.

The "Jane the Virgin" star has denied the allegations, and in a stunning countermove, sued The New York Times for libel over its reporting of the case. The legal saga escalated again in January, when Baldoni filed a second lawsuit, this time accusing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, of defamation and extortion.

Baldoni alleges that Lively and Reynolds attempted to exert influence over the production of "It Ends With Us," using their connection to Taylor Swift to bolster their position. In an effort to defend himself publicly, Baldoni released behind-the-scenes video footage of him and Lively dancing on set, as well as a website containing what he claims are text messages between the two.

The former co-stars are set to face off in court in March 2026, but for now, Baldoni appears to be focusing on family and finding peace.

The legal showdown between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is taking another turn, but this time through the lens of an explosive new UK documentary titled "He Said, She Said: Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni."

As the high-profile case barrels toward a 2026 trial, the doc features intimacy expert Mia Schachter, who provides a nuanced take on the actors' once-close relationship and how it reportedly unraveled during production on the film adaptation of "It Ends With Us."

Though Schachter was not involved with the movie, she was asked to review alleged text messages between Lively and Baldoni, some of which Baldoni made public in a bid to clear his name. Based on what she read, Schachter suggests that the co-stars shared a genuine friendship, and possibly even some flirtation, prior to the lawsuit.

“From reading their text messages, I do get the sense that, at one point, there was genuine affection between them and what felt like a friendship,” she said in the documentary, per Us Weekly.

However, that bond appeared to rupture after Lively filed a bombshell lawsuit in December 2024, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment, retaliation, emotional distress, and more.

Her claims included allegations that Baldoni improvised kissing scenes, proposed sex scenes not included in the script and failed to ensure the presence of an intimacy coordinator on set.

Baldoni denied all allegations and responded with a January 2025 countersuit, claiming that Lively had, in fact, declined to meet the film’s intimacy coordinator prior to filming.

To support his defense, he shared a text message from Lively allegedly stating that she didn’t need to meet the coordinator until shooting began. Schachter weighed in on that point as well.

“In my experience, when an actor says, ‘I don’t need to meet the intimacy coordinator until we’re shooting,’ as much as it hinders my process, it does typically indicate that they trust their scene partner,” Schachter explained. “And those texts made me think that, at one point, she did feel a lot of trust with him.”

A trial is set for 2026.