Blake Lively Called Taylor Swift ‘Epically Heroic’ for Her Role in a Meeting With Justin Baldoni
In newly unsealed text messages, Blake Lively and Taylor Swift discussed the ongoing conflict between the former and her This Ends With Us co-star, Justin Baldoni. Lively asks for Swift’s help in promoting her version of the film script to Baldoni. In a reference to an apparent meeting between herself, Swift, and Baldoni, Lively thanks her friend for her support.
Blake Lively messaged Taylor Swift about Justin Baldoni
Lively filed a complaint against Baldoni, the director of It Ends With Us, in 2024 for sexual harassment and allegedly trying to damage her reputation. Swift, a close friend of Lively, frequently became entangled in the legal battle as Baldoni’s team attempted to depose her. In unsealed text messages between Swift and Lively, the two friends discuss the case.
“I think this b**** knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin,” Swift wrote in a text message with a screenshot of a People story about Baldoni (via The Hollywood Reporter).
In another message, Lively asks Swift to endorse her revised version of the script, telling her that she didn’t have to read it. Swift agreed, telling Lively, “I’ll do anything for you!”
She apparently endorsed the script at a meeting with Lively and Baldoni. Lively thanked her effusively for her support.
“You were so epically heroic today,” she wrote. “I recapped every moment to Ryan [Reynolds]. 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 absolute greatest friend ever.”
Blake Lively’s messages with Taylor Swift show a shift in their relationship
The unsealed messages also reveal the changing relationship between Swift and Lively. People noticed that the once-close friends weren’t spending much time together publicly. They addressed their growing distance over text.
“Hey, just checking in,” Lively wrote at the start of a lengthy message. “I have no reason to ask, but I donno, l’ve been feeling like I should… is everything OK? I felt like a bad friend lately because I was such a sad sack who only talked about my own shit for months. You were generous to not only be the key person there for me during all of it, but also to let me off the hook for being so in it. But I still have a feeling something may not be right.”
In her response, Swift pointed to a change in her dynamic with Lively.
“No you’re not wrong, but it’s 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,” she wrote. “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. It’s more like… and I feel really bad saying anything about this because your texts have been so nice in their intent but your last few… it’s felt like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees.”
She added that while she felt bad about being critical of Lively, she missed her “funny, dark, normal-speaking friend who talks to me as herself, not like. A plural unit.”
In a response, Lively agreed and noted that she felt “digitally paranoid.”
The ‘Gossip Girl’ actor’s team responded to the unsealed messages
The text messages between Lively and several other big names were unsealed ahead of a Jan. 22 hearing. Lively’s legal team said they look forward to hearing how Baldoni responds.
“In his TedTalk to promote his brand as an advocate for women, Justin Baldoni said we must ‘listen to the women’…even if what they are saying is against you,’” they told ABC News in a statement. “See how he actually reacts in the bombshell new evidence released for the first time, which includes sworn testimony and contemporaneous messages from numerous women who actually worked with him.”
They added that the messages confirm the claims Lively made in her lawsuit.
“The newly unsealed evidence contains never-before seen testimony, messages, and evidence from numerous eyewitnesses backing the claims in Ms. Lively’s lawsuit. The evidence includes Ms. Lively’s own testimony describing the harassment she faced, as well as new evidence from numerous women describing their own disturbing experiences.”
The trial will begin on May 18.
