Taylor Swift’s private text messages with friend Blake Lively have been dragged into the latter’s ongoing legal battle with It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni.
Shortly after Lively filed a “hostile work environment” complaint against Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, details emerged about Swift’s potential involvement in the controversy. The singer-songwriter notably allowed her 2020 song “My Tears Ricochet” to be used in It Ends With Us, but has repeatedly tried to publicly distance herself from the drama and denied direct involvement with the movie.
Baldoni’s legal team, led by Bryan Freedman, stunned legal observers by announcing in September 2025 that Swift “agreed to appear” for a deposition, though the singer’s spokesperson later clarified that she “did not agree to a deposition” and would only comply if “forced into a deposition” by the court. (Judge Lewis J. Liman ultimately ruled in September 2025 that Swift would not be deposed because a proposed date would fall outside the discovery process.)
As Baldoni and Lively’s lawyers gear up for a May 2026 trial, private text exchanges between the actress and Swift were released by Team Lively in response to Team Baldoni’s “motion for summary judgement.” In these messages, Swift allegedly referred to Baldoni as a “bitch” who got out his “tiny violin” as the scandal exploded in December 2024.
Keep scrolling for a full rundown of Swift-specific text exchanges — or head here for an even deeper dive into the newly-released documents.
April 12, 2023, Part 1
The first set of texts involve the alleged run-in that Justin Baldoni had with Taylor Swift at Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds’ New York City apartment during production of It Ends With Us.
In one text message, Lively allegedly asked Swift — who is only referred to as “Sender/Recip Name Not Available” in these documents— for help in winning over Baldoni to her changes in the It Ends With Us script. Lively referred to Baldoni as her “doofus director” and guessed that she would be “ushering him out” around the time Swift was supposed to stop by.
“Hope he’s still here… Can you do me a huge favor. I need help with him,” Lively asked. “Can you tell him you are excited for the movie. That you read the book but what you’re freaking out over is the [script] pages I sent you. What a magnetic scene that is. Or whatever descriptives you’re comfortable [with].”
Later in the exchange, Lively suggested that Swift “[didn’t] have to read [the scene] of course,” but stressed that it would be “a quick read.” (In her July 2025 deposition, Lively confirmed she’d “sent Taylor the script on her way to my apartment because Justin was still there, and I asked her to read them. I told her she didn’t have to, I didn’t want her to feel pressured to do that, but I hoped that she would.”)
Lively claimed that Swift “dug a movie out of a grave once already for me” and then sent along revised script pages for It Ends With Us.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in April 2025. Getty Images; CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP
“I’ll do anything for you,” Swift replied, with Lively adding: “I love you thank you!!”
A previously unsealed exhibit in the case offered context on what allegedly went down at Lively and Reynolds’ apartment. Baldoni’s lawyers claimed that Swift and Hugh Jackman were both present when the Deadpool actor allegedly “unloaded” on Baldoni.
Reynolds reportedly accused Baldoni of “fat-shaming Blake” for allegedly reaching out to Lively’s personal trainer to ask about his costar’s weight. (Baldoni later insisted that he contacted the trainer because he didn’t want to aggravate a back injury while shooting an It Ends With Us scene where he’d have to lift Lively.)
According to Baldoni’s attorneys, the filmmaker felt “completely embarrassed and apologized and even shared some tears” during his confrontation with Reynolds.
“[The] confrontation by Reynolds and Lively was so aggressive that Baldoni felt he had no choice but to offer repeated (and completely unwarranted) apologies,” his lawyers wrote in court filings.
April 12, 2023, Part 2
A second set of text messages were sent after the alleged showdown at Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ apartment. (In these exchanges, Taylor Swift is once again referred to as “Sender/Recip Name Not Available.”)
“You were so epically heroic today,” Lively wrote. “I recapped every moment to Ryan. I kept remembering stuff — You making s*** up about me and lenses. And referring to yourself as my doll. This clown falling for all of it. But also resisting it. You are the worlds absolutely greatest friend. I won the lottery.”
Swift allegedly responded, “I WON THE LOTTERY. You are the COOLEST PERSON IN THE WORLD and you like me!!”
Lively followed up with a series of messages venting about Justin Baldoni allegedly telling Swift that he “doesn’t know pop culture.”
“[It] made me more mad than anything he’s done to me,” she wrote. “His entire brand is dissembling toxic masculinity. He monetizes it. He does TED Talks!! But says that to you. Not only is it so rude but it’s untrue.”
Lively went on, “The thing that enraged me is that you are in an absolute league of your own in being the most popular artist alive and one of all time, but also the most respected and awarded.”
Lively suggested that Baldoni would have never pretended to be ignorant of a male artist’s work — using acclaimed director Steven Spielberg as an example.
“You would never make a point to say to Steven Spielberg about his work that you don’t know it [because] you don’t know pop culture,” Lively argued.
The Gossip Girl star insisted she’d been “raging ever since” their interaction with Baldoni, adding that she agreed with Swift’s apparent assessment that Baldoni “so wants to be in the room but has to act like he doesn’t.”
“I’ve been digging up hatchets. I’ll stop now,” Lively later promised. “I love you and [Ryan] and my babies and get more protective of your hearts than mine sometimes. I’m so much less forgiving when it comes to someone messing with someone I love than when someone messes [with] me.”
She concluded, “I’m done. I just love you and am so ecstatic for you. And grateful to you for today. That was stupid fun.”
April 14, 2023
Two days later, Blake Lively seemingly tried to mend fences with Justin Baldoni in a text exchange where she insisted that she had “no motives except for you to win.”
“As a director. As an actor. As a studio. As a writer. If you win, I win,” she wrote. “If you win, our movie wins. We are aligned. And I will bring everything I have to this.”
As their messages unfurled, Lively addressed Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift being in her corner.
“I’m the luckiest motherf***er on the planet to have them as my Dance Moms level stage moms,” she wrote to Baldoni. “They are embarrassingly effusive. That said, they’re also my most trusted partners and the people I go to first with anything creative I touch. And I’m the person they go to first. That reciprocal creativity and support has been one of my life’s greatest and most fulfilling gifts.”
She later declared, “If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, usually for better.”
April 23, 2024
The next section of relevant texts were sent more than a year after Taylor Swift crossed paths with Justin Baldoni at Blake Lively’s apartment. In these messages, Lively asked for Swift’s opinion on a promotional trailer for It Ends With Us.
Lively mentioned that she’d “finally gotten to get in the edit [suite]” for It Ends With Us with “no Justin [Baldoni]” and was determined to “make this movie great (successful) if it’s the last thing I do.” She asked for Swift’s guidance on the trailer because her friend “knows pop culture better than anyone, and also [as] someone who read [author Colleen Hoover’s] book.”
The actress cautioned Swift that the working cut of the It Ends With Us trailer featured the latter’s 2020 song “My Tears Ricochet.”
“Don’t be thrown by your song. They went out on a limb and kept it. Which is cheating [because] it imbues everything with such gravity and quality,” Lively confirmed. “I’m torn. Obviously your feelings decide it but if you were open to it, on one hand, f*** them forever. On the other, I want this movie to work, and your song hits the main artery.”
Lively encouraged Swift to share the clip with her then-boyfriend (and now fiancé) Travis Kelce because she “would love his opinion also.”
“My Tears Ricochet” ultimately featured in the first promotional trailer for It Ends With Us, released on May 16, 2024.
April 26, 2024
A conversation between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift saw the pair discuss Swift’s song being used in the first promotional trailer for It Ends With Us.
“Wow I love how they use the song,” Swift, referred to in the docs as “Sender/Recip Name Not Available,” wrote. “Welcome to Hollywood Justin.” She then sent a screenshot.
Lively responded, “I’m not ok. I can’t breathe. I’m obsessed with you. I have never felt more like Khalessi. I have dragons. Except my dragons are bred with Cersei herself.”
Swift then wrote, “I’m just picturing you muttering ‘Dracarys,’ and then I fire off those texts to Austin. [dragon emoji and fire emoji].” (“Dracarys” is a word used in Game of Thrones by Daenerys Targaryen to command her dragons to breathe fire.)
Swift added, “By the way, if Justin was strategic, he would be like ‘No Taylor Swift in the trailer.’ Because that gives you more power over the film, that’s your ally, not his.”
Lively wrote back, “Get yourself a best friend who thinks like the actual Roman Empire.”
Swift continued, “His misogyny runs so deep he thinks women are incapable of winning chess matches or making long game power plays.”
Lively agreed, concluding, “You are so right. And so wickedly smart to call it. He should’ve run from your music. I never thought about that. But holy s***. How stupid. This was his only shot at having the appearance of an upper hand.”
May 19, 2024
By the time of this May 2024 text exchange, It Ends With Us’ behind-the-scenes feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni was hitting a fever pitch.
Lively relayed that she’d heard from It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover that Baldoni had launched “an internal smear campaign” to regain control of the movie’s editing. Per Lively, Hoover was “not friends” with Baldoni and “actually hates him.”
“She was his safety net all along,” Lively wrote to Swift. “Meanwhile he shut her out and wouldn’t include her in anything and told her she had no voice or value yet paraded her around in front of cameras for goodwill and told us all that all his decision[s] he got pushback on were her ideas.”
Swift — again referred to as “Sender/Recip Name Not Available” — replied: “Wildddd.”
Justin Baldoni honored at the Vital Voices 12th Annual Voices of Solidarity Awards in December 2024. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Vital Voices Global Partnership
Lively mentioned that she’d received support from “Bradley” — seemingly Bradley Cooper — and Matt and Lucy Damon during the editing process. The Damons allegedly went so far as to write Sony Pictures chairperson Tom Rothman directly to “try to push my edit through without a bake-off with Justin,” Lively reported. (Us reached out to Damon’s rep.)
“It’s wild and crazy times,” she added.
Swift responded that “no one should ever get into a war of wills” with Lively, before assuring her friend that she was “so excited to see” It Ends With Us.
The Grammy winner’s spokesperson later clarified to Us Weekly in May 2025 that Swift “never saw an edit or made any notes on the film” prior to its release.
“She did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history,” Swift’s rep told Us. “The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet.’”
December 4 and December 5, 2024
Two weeks before she filed her complaint against Justin Baldoni with the California Civil Rights Department, Blake Lively checked in with Taylor Swift about the state of their friendship.
“I have no reason to ask, but I donno, I’ve been feeling like I should… is everything OK?” Lively asked Swift. “I felt like a bad friend lately because I was such a sad sack who only talked about my own s*** for months. You were generous to not only be a key person there for me during it all, but also let me off the hook for being so in it. But I still have a feeling something may not be right.”
Lively explained that her husband, Ryan Reynolds, encouraged her to be open and honest with Swift about a potential shift in their friendship.
“I do want to know everything is good so I’m asking,” Lively went on. “I always want the opportunity to be a better friend if there’s something I unintentionally did. I know how busy and taxed you are — physically, emotionally, practically, so I don’t expect any more from you ever. Just want to make sure all is good.”
Justin Baldoni alleged in a new lawsuit that his It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively suggested he get a nose job. News broke on Thursday, January 16, that Baldoni, 40, his studio and other plaintiffs sued Lively, 37, Reynolds, 48, and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, for $400 million in damages. In one portion of […]
Swift — this time identified directly as “Taylor” in the court documents — confirmed that Lively was “not wrong,” though she insisted their shift was “also not a big deal.”
“I think I’m just exhausted in every avenue of my life and in recent months had been feeling a little bit of a shift in the way you talk to me,” Swift acknowledged. “Yes there has been a lot of the Justin stuff but I’ve been through things like this before and I know how all consuming it is.”
Swift continued, “It’s more like … and I feel really bad saying anything about this because your texts have been so nice in intent but your last few … it felt like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees. You said the word ‘we’ like 18 times. And it feels awful to be in any way critical of the way you process what you’ve been going through but I just kinda miss my funny, dark, normal-speaking friend who talks to me as herself, not like a plural unit. When it’s a group I’m hearing from, I feel distanced from you even more than we are geographically [due to ‘The Eras Tour].”
Following a redacted section, Swift acknowledged that Lively felt “attacked from all sides for ridiculous reasons” due to the It Ends With Us drama.
“And you don’t need to apologize. Just come back,” Swift requested.
Lively seemingly tried to lighten the mood by formatting her response in the style of a corporate email where she referred to Swift as a “valued customer” and promised she was “reviewing [her] concerns and will get back to [her] in a timely manner.”
“For real though, you’re right,” Lively conceded.
The actress confessed that she was “digitally paranoid” in light of her battle with Baldoni and had “internalized that everything digital may become public.”
“I say that knowing it’s irrational,” Lively noted. “But my brain can’t accept rationale there. So yeah, I’ve been texting like I’m writing. Not like me talking. I didn’t realize that until you pointed it out, but I see it.”
Lively recalled that “the thing that spooked [her] most” in her ordeal with Baldoni was “the good guys, my lifelong friends — allies to women — who’ve quietly dipped.”
“I’m probably being over the top with my friends who stayed because I’ve never felt more alone,” Lively added. “This track is very violin-heavy, I hate it. … Point is, I’m being a stupid paranoid weirdo and felt it but didn’t know where or how or when, so thank you for telling me and saying I don’t need to apologize and not making it a big deal.”
However, Lively did ultimately offer an apology by writing. “I am sorry. And I’m sorry to me and our kids. F*** that guy and his whole gaggle of supervillains.”
“You’ve got enough on you,” Lively admitted. “You don’t need to write back to all of this. Just letting you know I see it now. And thank you.”
She closed the text message with another corporate parody, promising that Swift’s “submission will be processed shortly.”
Swift seemingly enjoyed the format of Lively’s text message, as she replied that the “first paragraph took me OUT.”
The following day, Swift shared a December 4, 2024, People magazine article with the headline “Justin Baldoni Reveals He Was Sexually Traumatized By an Ex-Girlfriend When He Was ‘Hoping to Save Myself for Marriage.’”
“I think this bitch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin,” Swift wrote to Lively.
Lively quipped that the article “rings different” because Baldoni didn’t mention “‘Did I always listen when they said no? No,’ like he did with me.” (In her December 2024 lawsuit, Lively accused Baldoni of once admitting to her that he did not “always ask for consent” before having sex. Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman told Us Weekly at the time that the filmmaker denied Lively’s “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious” accusations.)
Lively also pointed out that Baldoni was being presented with the Voices of Solidarity Award by the Vital Voices group on December 9, 2024, in recognition of his allyship with women. (The award was later rescinded after Lively filed her complaint against Baldoni.)
“This is so disgusting,” Swift responded. “I hate that he’s clever about this s***.”
When Lively pointed out that Baldoni has a PR team behind him, Swift insisted: “He needs to be beaten by his own words.”
“I actually think it’s important he’s being honored,” Lively countered. “And to all the people honoring him and not taking a moment to question … no one talks to him, no one will say his name, no one follows him, yet they are all close with each other … maybe it was him? Nahh it was the women because they wore flowers. That’s how you know.”
“Jesus Christ,” Swift retorted.
Swift then seemingly referenced a pending lawsuit by asking if “everything [is] still on track,” with Lively confirming: “Oh yes. A week later tho.” (Lively has denied giving Swift access to the New York Times article that kicked off the legal drama.)
“His own words, that’s gonna be powerful … It’s the only way to beat liars and hypocrites,” Swift predicted.
“Can you imagine feeling as confident as these predators that you’re going to always get away with it,” Lively asked her friend. “Him accepting an award as an ally for women.”
Lively linked Baldoni to Swift’s former nemesis Scooter Braun, the producer who once owned the singer’s master recordings until she was eventually able to buy them back through a third party.
“And Scooter going about [the] world with his head held high as he co owns and funds a crisis PR company that silences women,” Lively added.
Swift described the situation as a “horror film no one knows is taking place,” though Lively promised it wouldn’t be a secret for much longer.
“It’s the only thing that can come of this,” Lively maintained. “The good that protects other women from this happening to them. Meanwhile, I walk around feeling death sentence guilty and apologetic for being sarcastic and liking a theme party.”
In that last text, Lively was responding to the controversy that arose over the promotion of It Ends With Us, where she used bright-colored florals to highlight the project. Some felt the marketing tactic was tone-deaf given the themes of domestic violence in the film.
December 21, 2024
The final text message chain released thus far took place on the same day as Blake Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department against Justin Baldoni.
“You won. You did it,” Taylor Swift wrote to Lively.
Swift’s congratulations were sent in a group chat that also included someone listed in Lively’s contacts as “Roy Orbison,” who agreed with Swift that “it’s turning.” (Since the late singer Roy Orbison died at age 52 in 1988, there are theories that the musician’s name was used here to denote someone Lively admired.)
The “Life of a Showgirl” singer shared a link to news coverage of the case and credited Lively with “f***[ing] help[ing] so many people who won’t have to go through this ever again.”
“Never has a cancellation been reversed so fast,” Swift argued. “You guys don’t understand how rare this is. To have proof and to take the perfect steps to bring that truth to light.”
Lively replied, “Like. My. God. I love you so much. I would not be ok through any of this if it weren’t for you.”
Swift confirmed she’d received a call from a “PR chick” who “wants to get info to Blake.”
“That means the world,” Swift declared, with Lively agreeing: “It changed my life.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Swift’s representative for comment on these text messages.
