Blake Lively and Taylor Swift‘s text messages about Justin Baldoni have been revealed in court as Lively sues her It Ends With Us co-star and director over allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation.
According to documents obtained by E! News on January 20, Lively, 38, sent several texts to Swift, 36, about Baldoni, 41, calling him a “doofus director” and a “clown”.
Lively had sent the script to the Grammy winner to look over as Swift headed over to her apartment, where she was having a meeting with Baldoni.
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Swift responded with “I’ll do anything for you !!” according to court documents.
Lively later thanked Swift, sharing that she relayed the whole evening to her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds.
“You were so epically heroic today,” Lively messaged to Swift, according to the court files.
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“I recapped every moment to Ryan. I kept remembering stuff—You making s–t 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,” Lively told Swift.
In Lively’s July deposition, she confirmed she told Swift, “you don’t have to read” the script. In the January 20 deposition, she clarified she used that wording to relieve her friend of any pressure she may have felt to be involved in the movie.
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This deposition comes four months after Swift’s team denied she ever agreed to be deposed during the civil litigation between the It Ends With Us stars.
A September 2025 letter to the court from Baldoni’s legal team said Swift agreed to be deposed but was unable to do so prior to October 20 due to professional commitments.
One day later, the pop star’s attorney wrote that she had not agreed to be deposed and would only do so if required by the court.
“Since the inception of this matter we have consistently maintained that my client has no material role in this action,” an attorney for Swift wrote in a letter obtained by CNN.
“Further, my client did not agree to a deposition, but if she is forced into a deposition, we advised (after first hearing about the deposition just three days ago) that her schedule would accommodate the time required during the week of October 20 if the parties were able to work out their disputes. We take no role in those disputes.”
Swift first received a subpoena for the case in May 2025, with it being subsequently withdrawn.
“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 travelling around the globe during 2023 and 2024,” a spokesperson for the singer said at the time.
“The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, My Tears Ricochet.
“Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case,” the spokesperson added.
Fans first suspected trouble brewing between the Lively, the producer of the film, and Baldoni, the director, as they promoted it separately.
Lively was accused of creatively hijacking the film by Baldoni, while Lively accused him of sexual harassment on set, filing a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, alleging that Baldoni created a hostile work environment.
Soon after, a New York Times article was published that accused Baldoni of hiring a public relations team to destroy Lively’s image.
Lively then further sued Baldoni and his PR reps for allegedly violating US Federal and California State law by retaliating against her sexual harassment and workplace safety complaints.
In response, Baldoni sued The New York Times for defamation for $US250 million (approx. $374 million) in December 2024, and on the same day, Lively filed a lawsuit against him, the associates of his digital content company, Wayfarer Studios, and his PR executives, later also suing social media PR expert Jed Wallace.
Baldoni, his Wayferer associates and his PR team filed a $US400 million (approx. $594 million) lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist in January 2025.
In it, he claimed Lively used false sexual harassment to threaten to withdraw from production and gain creative control, later resulting in him being withdrawn from the process, having his editors and composers dismissed, and barring him from the film’s premiere.
Baldoni subpoenaed Swift in May 2025, but was forced to withdraw the request after the court condemned him for an abuse of purpose.
In June 2025, the court officially dismissed all of Baldoni’s suits against Lively, Reynolds, and The New York Times, but did grant him access to text messages between Swift and Lively. Lively then subpoenaed Scooter Braun and his company HYBE America, alleging that he is associated with Baldoni’s PR team. In November 2025, Lively’s case against Wallace was dropped.
Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni continues in May 2026.
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