Justin Baldoni and Emily Baldoni celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary this week with loving Instagram posts, but one word in Emily’s message has sparked speculation among followers.
The couple, who married in July 2013, share two children: daughter Maiya Grace and son Maxwell Roland-Samuel. On Monday, July 27, both posted throwback images from their wedding day to mark the occasion.
Justin’s post was warm and nostalgic, but some fans zeroed in on Emily’s caption and wondered whether it may have contained a pointed nod to his long-running legal battle with his It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively.
Alongside a black-and-white image taken shortly after their vows, Emily wrote “Marriage: still my favorite lift. Thirteen, baby!!” Fans quickly latched onto the word “lift,” linking it to an allegation made by Lively in her legal complaint against Baldoni. In that filing, she claimed he made unkind remarks about her weight while preparing for a scene where his character was meant to lift hers.
In the comments, one person said Emily was being “a savage with the play-on word”, while another quipped that the moment probably “did not hurt his back”.
Justin also shared a wedding-day photo of his own. In his caption, he said the two were “still dancing” after 13 years of marriage and joked that the image was taken at the exact moment his pants split.
The renewed attention around Emily’s anniversary post comes amid a legal conflict that began in December 2024, when Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni and others. The filing included allegations of sexual harassment as well as claims that a retaliatory smear campaign had been carried out to damage her reputation.
In April 2026, a federal judge dismissed most of Lively’s claims, including her sexual harassment claims, narrowing the case ahead of trial. The dispute was then resolved in a settlement announced in May 2026, just weeks before the scheduled trial date, although some related court issues have continued into the summer.
Baldoni and Lively reached the settlement after a highly publicized legal back-and-forth that drew widespread attention online and in Hollywood. After that, the Baldonis spoke publicly about the emotional aftermath in an Instagram video posted on July 8, with Justin saying they were concentrating on recovery and noting that the process “isn’t linear” and looks “different every day”.
Justin has also previously discussed the foundations of his marriage during the difficult period.
In an October 2024 interview with People tied to a partnership with Purina Dog Chow, he described marriage as “a fortress”, saying it is “something that you build yourself” as protection from the challenges of life. He added that the couple’s broader outlook on their place in an ever-expanding universe has also helped keep their relationship in perspective.
So far, neither Justin nor Emily has commented on the online theories surrounding the anniversary caption, and it is still unclear whether the wording was meant to reference the legal dispute in any way.