- - What Taylor Swift's text messages reveal in Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni 'It Ends With Us' drama

Kaitlin ReillyJanuary 22, 2026 at 6:46 AM

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Newly unsealed text messages between Taylor Swift and Blake Lively shed light on the state of their friendship in 2024, as Lively began to take legal action against her It Ends With Us director and costar, Justin Baldoni.

Lively accused Baldoni in a December 2024 lawsuit of sexual misconduct and of orchestrating a smear campaign against her on the set of the Colleen Hoover film adaptation. The he-said, she-said drama dominated headlines for more than a year afterward, and Baldoni filed a countersuit that was eventually dismissed.

Swift, Lively’s longtime friend, had been a key figure in the press, with Baldoni’s team accusing Lively of using the powerful pop star’s influence to gain more control over the It Ends With Us production. In May 2025, Baldoni dropped a subpoena against Swift.

Fans have questioned whether Lively and Swift are still friends after the Baldoni drama. The two women, who often appeared together at social outings, have not been spotted together publicly since October 2024 nor spoken about the state of their friendship.

Now, over a year after the case began, the newly released texts reveal more about their relationship at the time the lawsuit launched and how they felt about Baldoni.

What the text messages say about Lively and Swift’s friendship

The newly released text messages between Swift and Lively, from Dec. 4 and Dec. 5, 2024, paint a picture of a friendship strained by Lively’s focus on the case against Baldoni.

In an exchange on Dec. 4, 2024 — which came after a summer of negative press about Lively during the It Ends With Us press tour and weeks before the bombshell New York Times article that revealed her complaint against Baldoni — Lively wrote to check in with Swift, asking whether everything between them was OK.

“I felt like a bad friend lately because I was such a sad sack who only talked about my own s**t for months,” Lively wrote. “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.”

Swift, at the time, was nearing the end of her globe-spanning Eras Tour.

Swift wrote back to Lively, telling her, “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 continued. “Yes there has been a lot of the Justin stuff but I've been through things like this before and 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. You said the word 'we' like 18 times. And it feels awful to be in any way critical of any 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.”

Lively apologized to Swift, noting that she was feeling “digitally paranoid” and that she was speaking that way out of fear that what she writes could become public. She also said the situation had taken a toll on her relationships.

“The thing that spooked me most in all this though, wasn't the bad guys being bad guys, it was the good guys, my lifelong friends — allies to women— who quietly dipped,” she wrote. “And so I'm probably being over the top with my friends who stayed because I've never felt more alone.”

“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 for saying I don't need to apologize and for not making it a big deal,” Lively continued. “But I am sorry. To you. And I'm sorry to me and to our kids. F*** that guy and f*** his whole gaggle of supervillains.”

What Swift said about Baldoni in the messages

On Dec. 5, Swift sent Lively a photo of a People magazine Instagram post featuring 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 alongside the image.

The text message adds credence to fan speculation that Swift’s song “Cancelled!” from her 2025 album The Life of a Showgirl is about Lively getting “cancelled” over the Baldoni case. On the song, Swift sings, “Did you make a joke only a man could? / Were you just too smug for your own good? / Or bring a tiny violin to a knife fight? Baby, that all ends tonight.”

Swift and Lively went on to discuss an event held by the women’s nonprofit Vital Voices, during which Baldoni would be honored with its Voices of Solidarity award. The organization rescinded it after Lively’s complaint against Baldoni went public.

“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.

“It's like a horror film no one knows is taking place,” Swift replied.

On Dec. 21, the day the New York Times published Lively’s complaint, Swift texted Lively a link to a Deadline article about Baldoni’s agency parting ways with him.

“You won. … You did it,” she said. “And you f***ing helped so many people who won’t have to go through this ever again.”

“Never has a cancellation been reversed so fast,” she added. “You guys don’t understand how rare this is. … To have proof and to take the perfect steps to bring that truth into the light.”

“I love you so much,” Lively replied. “I would not be ok through any of this if it weren’t for you.”

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Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”