Blake Lively sued her It Ends With Us (2024) director, Justin Baldoni, in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment, and soon after Taylor Swift’s name cropped up in the controversy as Taylor and Blake have shared a deep friendship for a long time. Baldoni and production company Wayfarer Studios countersued Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. He also attempted to subpoena Swift, only for her to disassociate from the matter with a statement, prompting Baldoni to leave her out.
Taylor Swift called Justin Baldoni a ‘b*tch’
Now, in a hearing on Tuesday, text exchanges between Taylor Swift and Blake Lively from the time of the making and release of the film were unsealed as part of the evidence presented in the court. The most noteworthy is a conversation between the two friends from around the release of It Ends With Us, referring to Baldoni talking about being “sexually traumatised by an ex-girlfriend”.
“I think this b*tch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin,” Swift wrote to Lively. When the latter pointed out that Baldoni was being honoured at an event abo0ut “vital voices of women,” Swift replied, “This is so disgusting, and I hate that he’s clever about this shit.” Lively attributed Baldoni’s honour to his team, “his publicist Jennifer Abel and the comms people at his studio”. “He needs to be beaten by his OWN words,” wrote Swift, as per text messages shared by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Can you imagine feeling as confident as these predators that you’re going to always get away with it? Him accepting an award as an ally for women,” Lively wrote to Swift, only for the popstar to respond, “It’s like a horror film no one knows is taking place.” This was, however, not the first time they discussed Baldoni over texts.
Blake Lively called Justin Baldoni a ‘doofus director’
A year prior to the above text exchange, during the making of It Ends With Us, Lively referred to Baldoni as the “doofus director of my movie” in a text to Swift, adding that the “clown thinks he’s a writer now”. Lively also asked Swift to endorse a revised version of the script she’d written while the latter was on her way to visit her when Baldoni was at her place. She also asked Swift she didn’t have to read it if she couldn’t. “I’ll do anything for you!!,” replied Swift.
This was in variance with what Lively told the court earlier. “I 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 pressure to do that, but I hope that she would,” she had claimed. Her texts to Swift after their meeting with Baldoni also tells a different story.
“I kept remembering stuff — You making shit 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 world’s absolute greatest friend ever,” wrote Lively. She added that she was thrilled by Swift’s “heroically epic” ways that day that she couldn’t help but “recap” every moment to her husband Reynolds.
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Last year, after Baldoni attempted to subpoena Swift, the latter’s spokesperson distanced her from the case and issued a statement. “Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, 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,” it said, referring to The Eras Tour.
More about the case
In her lawsuit, Lively accused Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour” by Baldoni. When Baldoni’s countersuit was initially dismissed, his lawyer said Lively’s claims that she was sexually harassed on the film set, and then subjected to a secret smear campaign intended to taint her reputation, were “no truer today than they were yesterday.”
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestselling novel, that begins as a romance but takes a dark turn into domestic violence, was released in August 2024, exceeding box office expectations with a $50 million debut. But the movie’s release was shrouded by speculation over discord between Lively and Baldoni.
