It Ends With Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively remain entangled in a legal battle, and recent messages between Lively and her friend Taylor Swift have surfaced, seemingly addressing the conflict.
The dispute began in December 2024 when Blake Lively lodged a legal complaint against Justin Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and orchestrating a ‘smear campaign’ against her.
By January 2025, Lively, known for her role in A Simple Favor, initiated another lawsuit alleging harassment and retaliation, claiming Baldoni exhibited inappropriate behavior on-set.
In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit, accusing Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and the New York Times of defamation and extortion. However, this case was dismissed in June and subsequently thrown out in October.
Now, as the legal saga continues, Taylor Swift’s involvement has come to light. On January 20, messages from Lively’s phone were unsealed and submitted in the US District Court in Manhattan by her legal team. These messages, seemingly from Swift, convey a strong sentiment.
The unsealing of these court documents follows a motion for summary judgment filed by Baldoni’s legal team in November.
Among the released materials were hundreds of emails, texts, and depositions. Notably, a text exchange previously filed by Baldoni’s team showed a conversation between Swift and Lively in December 2024, coinciding with the onset of the allegations.
In early December, Swift allegedly sent a text containing a screenshot of a People magazine article titled: “Justin Baldoni reveals he was sexually traumatized by an ex-girlfriend when he was ‘hoping to save myself for marriage’.”
A follow-up text, purportedly from Swift, read: “I think this b**h knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin.”
Although Swift’s name is redacted in the filing, Lively’s legal team reportedly identified the singer in a court document addressing these messages.
The exchange continued with a message linking to a report about Baldoni being dropped by his agency. Another text, allegedly from Swift, stated: “You won. You did it. And you … helped so many people who won’t have to go through this again.”
In the motion filed the previous day, Lively’s lawyers acknowledged the ‘quoted language appears in the cited source,’ but denied that it was used in the context of discussing the New York Times article referenced in Baldoni’s countersuit.
Addressing the rest of the unsealed evidence, Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, remarked, as reported by NBC News: “The newly unsealed, damning documents show the consistent reaction numerous women, cast, crew, executives, partners, co-host and even his own PR team had working with Justin Baldoni.”
Baldoni’s representatives have consistently rejected the allegations, labeling them as ‘completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious’.
Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told TMZ that his client ‘wants the truth to come out’ and is ‘waiting for his day in court’ to be ‘vindicated’.
The case is set to go to trial in May, with Lively seeking damages totaling around $500 million.
Efforts have been made to contact Taylor Swift’s team for comment.