Justin Baldoni Makes Rare Appearance at Dancing With the Stars Super Bowl Night

Justin Baldoni turned up in the audience at “Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday night, a rare public outing since his legal fight with Blake Lively. The actor and director attended the show’s first Super Bowl Night with his wife, Emily, and their two children, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Why was Justin Baldoni at Dancing With the Stars?

He came as a guest of co-host Julianne Hough, a longtime friend. Page Six, citing sources close to the production, reported before the show that the family would attend as her special guests. The two met through Baldoni’s 2016 docuseries “My Last Days,” which he directed and Hough appeared in, per EW and Page Six. TMZ says they have been friends for more than a decade.

Us Weekly reports the couple were seen clapping after Maura Higgins opened the show with a tango inspired by Rihanna’s 2023 Super Bowl halftime show. Guest judge Joe Buck was on the panel for the night.

Where does the Blake Lively case stand?

Lively accused Baldoni of sexual harassment in a complaint filed in December 2024 and alleged a smear campaign, according to EW. Baldoni has denied the allegations, TMZ notes. He then sued Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for $400 million, and EW says a federal judge in Manhattan threw out that suit in June 2025. EW reports the two sides settled in May, weeks before trial, and that Lively was later awarded $407,000 in legal fees and costs. Us Weekly describes the same fee outcome as Baldoni being ordered to partly cover Lively’s attorneys’ fees. TMZ’s wording, “ongoing legal drama,” is looser than EW’s account that the case has ended.

Us Weekly also quotes Emily Baldoni from a July video with her husband: “We are healing, and if you’ve ever been through something traumatic, you know that healing isn’t linear.” We have not independently confirmed any of the underlying claims in the dispute.

For more on the same night, read our reports on the Super Bowl Night lineup and the elimination.

See our editorial standards for how we check and attribute stories.

Sources: Entertainment Weekly, Page Six, TMZ, Us Weekly. By Kasim Pathan. Published Oct. 14, 2026. The featured image is an editorial cartoon, not a photograph.