Judge: Taylor Swift And Blake Lively’s Text Convos Must Be Shared With Justin Baldoni’s Legal Team

Hopes that Taylor Swift would escape the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were dashed Wednesday, when US District Judge Lewis Liman ruled that texts between the billionaire artist and longtime pal Lively must be shared with Baldoni’s legal team.

By now, we all know the bare bones of the situation: After months of speculation that all was not well on the set of the Baldoni-directed It Ends With Us, Lively filed a legal complaint accusing Baldoni and his fellow producers of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior—and claimed the filmmakers had enacted a PR response intended to erode Lively’s credibility were she to speak out.

In response, Baldoni filed a $400 million defamation suit against Lively (among others)—and as part of the suit, attorney Bryan Freedman subpoenaed Swift, claiming she had the inside track on what really went down during production for the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling book about abusive and controlling men.

Swift’s spokesperson blasted the legal move, saying “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.”

The subpoena was dropped a few days after it was issued, and the defamation suit was dismissed earlier this month. Swift might have hoped that she was free from the legal skirmish…but like Michael Corleone, she’s been pulled back in—or, more precisely, her phone has. In a ruling issued Wednesday, Liman denied a protective order requested by Lively’s legal team that would have prevented private texts between Swift and Lively from being accessed by Baldoni’s attorneys.

“Lively herself has identified Swift as someone likely to have knowledge about complaints or discussions regarding the working environment on the set of It Ends With Us,” Liman wrote in his decision.

“Given that Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims.”

Before you get excited about an inside look at Taylor and Blake’s chosen emojis and autocorrect fails, take a seat, as Liman noted that a protective order prevents Baldoni’s team from sharing those communications with the press. In addition, only the texts related or “tangentially related to the underlying cause of action” must be shared with Baldoni’s counsel instead of “all communications” between the stars.

A spokesperson for Lively criticized the decision, saying in a statement that “Baldoni’s desire to drag Taylor Swift into this has been constant dating back to August 2024, when the crisis PR firm led by Melissa Nathan included her in their ‘Scenario Planning’ document … referred to her as a bully, and called for a strategy to influence the ‘TS fanbase.’”

“We will continue to call out Baldoni’s relentless efforts to exploit Ms Swift’s popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer parties are facing.”