Blake Lively’s private messages, now unsealed in her legal fight with Justin Baldoni, sketch a far more personal subplot than anyone expected: a friendship in flux with Taylor Swift and a concerted effort to fix it before heading to court. The texts suggest Lively was juggling a deteriorating movie set, a looming lawsuit and a “shift” with one of her closest friends, all at the same time. What emerges is a portrait of a star trying to repair one relationship even as another exploded into a public legal war.
Instead of a clean break, the record shows Lively trying to close the gap with Swift, voicing guilt about feeling like “a bad friend” while also preparing to accuse Baldoni of serious misconduct. The result is a rare, uncomfortable look at how loyalty, career risk and private emotion collide when a blockbuster project turns toxic.
The friendship ‘shift’ and Lively’s push to make amends
Behind the glossy images of Blake Lively and Taylor Swift on red carpets, their newly revealed texts describe a friendship that both women felt had changed. In those messages, Taylor Swift explicitly refers to a “shift” between them and pleads, “Just come back, please,” a line that captures how strained things had become even before the legal filings surfaced, according to the unsealed text messages. The same cache shows Swift wrestling with rumors of distance and trying to pull Lively back into their old rhythm, even as both acknowledged that work and personal stress had changed the dynamic. Those exchanges, which sit at the heart of the court documents, make clear that the “shift” was not just fan speculation but something the two women were naming directly.
At the same time, Lively was telling others that she was actively trying to fix things with Swift before taking the drastic step of suing Baldoni. One account describes how Blake Lively Tried to Save Taylor Swift Friendship Before Suing Baldoni, with the actor reportedly “bent over backwards” to reassure Swift that she was not abandoning their bond. In those same conversations, Lively is said to have admitted she felt like a bad friend lately, a confession that tracks with the tone of the unsealed texts in which she shares her concerns about how fame, schedules and the “It Ends With Us” storm were bleeding into their personal lives.
From ‘defensive dragon’ to distance as the Baldoni conflict escalated
For years, Swift had been one of Lively’s fiercest public defenders, described as a kind of “defensive dragon” who would step in when her friend felt under attack. That image is echoed in reporting that traces how, When Blake Lively first raised red flags about the “It Ends With Us” shoot, Swift was initially in her corner, according to Jeanette Settembre. But as the production turmoil deepened and Lively moved toward a “shocking lawsuit” weeks later, that protective stance gave way to more measured, even wary, messages. The shift from dragon to distance is not framed as a betrayal so much as a recalibration once Swift realized how explosive the allegations against Baldoni could become.
Those allegations were not minor. In December, In December 2024, Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, retaliation, breach of contract and infliction of emotional distress tied to their work on “It Ends With Us.” Separate filings describe how Lively is suing a pattern of alleged misconduct on set, claims he has denied as the case moves toward a potential jury. The legal fight has already drawn in the Civil Rights Department, with one complaint by Lively against the production that was initially kept confidential. Against that backdrop, Swift’s instinct to pull back slightly, even while staying emotionally engaged, reads less like abandonment and more like a friend trying to navigate a minefield.
Texts, subpoenas and a friendship caught in a legal crossfire
The legal crossfire around “It Ends With Us” has turned Swift from confidante into a central figure in court filings. In May, Baldoni petitioned to subpoena the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, arguing that Lively had used Swift and Reyno as leverage in behind-the-scenes disputes. That move signaled how deeply their private conversations had become entangled with the production’s controversy, which is now scheduled for trial in May 2026. The same controversy has already seen a separate complaint dismissed in June, according to filings summarized in More Stories by Lexy, even as new documents keep surfacing. Among them are unsealed text messages between Lively and Swift, emails to Ben Affleck and statements from Jenny Slate, all of which broaden the cast of characters pulled into the dispute.
Those texts are not just legal exhibits, they are emotional artifacts. In one exchange, Taylor Swift calls Justin Baldoni a “b—-” while venting to Blake Lively about how he allegedly treated her friend, a moment that underscores how personally she took Lively’s complaints. Another set of messages, unpacked in detail as Private texts between Taylor Swift and Blake Lively, shows the two women toggling between legal strategy, emotional support and mundane check-ins. The RUNDOWN of those exchanges makes clear that Lively was not only sharing her fears about Baldoni but also trying to reassure Swift that their friendship still mattered, even as lawyers and studio executives circled.
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