When it came to rumored bad blood between her and Blake Lively, Taylor Swift just wanted her "funny, dark, normal-speaking friend" back.
The singer has long been considered a supporting character in the now 13-month-long legal battle between Lively and Justin Baldoni, sparked when the actress accused her It Ends With Us director and costar of sexual harassment and retaliation—first in a civil complaint, then a lawsuit—and he countersued.
Now, it turns out there's a paper trail chronicling the toll the drama took on Lively and Swift's bond—though not to the extent that the Life of a Showgirl artist actually wrote a song about it.
But before Lively vs. Baldoni started making headlines, the Gossip Girl alum had been one of the most consistently present members of Swift's ever-evolving squad for nearly a decade. She and husband Ryan Reynolds were memorably right there when Swift—who's the godmother of their four children—caught her second-ever Kansas City Chiefs game in New York in 2023. And, of course they've double-dated with her and Travis Kelce.
So, it was noticeable when sightings of Swift and Lively tapered off.
Swift first unwittingly entered the fray a year ago when Baldoni's since-dismissed $400 million lawsuit against Lively referenced a then-unnamed "megacelebrity friend" of the actress who was allegedly pressuring him, along with Reynolds, to accept changes to the This Ends With Us script, particularly the pivotal rooftop scene.
The increasingly messy back-and-forth between Baldoni and Lively quickly spawned reports that Swift—whose Eras Tour ended barely two weeks before Lively went public with her allegations—was hoping to distance herself from the narrative by taking a step back from their friendship.
"It's not true," a source told E! News in response to rumors that the longtime pals were on the outs. Then, in May, a rep for Swift slammed Baldoni's request to subpoena Swift as a headline grab, asserting that the Grammy winner was never on set or otherwise had anything to do with how the movie got made.
"Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did," the rep said, "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."
In a July deposition, Lively clarified Swift's role in the aforementioned rooftop scene meeting, stating, "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 pressured to do that, but I hoped that she would.”
And the "Anti-Hero" singer apparently did, because in texts Lively sent later—which were included in a court filing unsealed Jan. 20 and obtained by E! News—she thanked Swift for being "epically heroic" in front of Baldoni.
Sharing how she regaled her husband with the details of Swift's performance, Lively further deemed her "the worlds absolute greatest friend ever."
Which would be a reason why Lively would want to check in and make sure all was well.
"I have no reason to ask, but I donno, I've been feeling like I should... is everything ok?" the Simple Favor star texted Swift on Dec. 4, 2024, according to the docs. "I felt like a bad friend lately because I was such a sad sack who only talked about my own s--t for months. 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."
To which Swift replied, per the filing, that Lively wasn't wrong about something being amiss, but it wasn't "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," Swift wrote. "Yes, there has been a lot of Justin stuff but I've been through things like this before and I know how all consuming it is."
The singer did have thoughts on the tone of some of Lively's messages, but she noted it felt "awful to be in any way critical" of how the mother of four was processing her ordeal.
"I just kinda miss my funny, dark, normal-speaking friend who talks to me as herself," Swift wrote. "I know you feel attacked from all sides for ridiculous reasons, so you're feeling like you have to overly explain things... but it's me. That's just caused a little distance. And you don't need to apologize. Just come back please."
Clearly a friendship worth fighting for. Read on for all the history between Swift and Lively:
December 2015
While on tour in Australia, Taylor Swift spent time at Warner Bros. Movie World theme park with Blake Lively, who was also there filming The Shallows.
"Yesterday was such an amazing day off—roller coasters, kangaroos and LOLs with @blakelively," the "Lavender Haze" singer wrote on Instagram at the time. Soon after, Blake was spotted shaking it off at Taylor's 1989 World Tour concert in Adelaide.
This first sighting of the duo hanging out came just three months after the Gossip Girl alum was accused of throwing shade at Taylor's "Bad Blood" music video on Instagram. But Blake denied that now they had baaaaaad blood, writing on Twitter, "Umm whoever thought I was throwin shade clearly doesn't know I have a 'Taylor Swift Please Be My Wife Voo Doo Doll.'"
Blake also shared a backstage photo of a few family members with Taylor on tour. "Look how rad she is here making my niece Heather feel like a rock star," she wrote. "Love my Canadian family almost as much as I love Taylor Lively. I mean Swift. Ok, FIIINE we can hyphenate our last names. Xo Blake Swift-Lively 4eva."
December 2015
For Taylor's 25th birthday, Blake sent a very special surprise: a cat pie.
In a since-deleted Instagram post, Taylor shared a photo of the pastry (featuring her beloved cats Meredith and Olivia), with a message on it that reads "Happy Thanksgiving Birthday."
Taylor captioned the post, "Blake wins at birthday pies," adding, "I honestly can't stop laughing rn."
July 2016
Blake, pregnant with her second child at the time, and her husband Ryan Reynolds attended Taylor's Fourth of July party at her house in Rhode Island alongside celeb guests Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, Ruby Rose, Uzo Aduba, HAIM, Karlie Kloss and Taylor's then-boyfriend Tom Hiddleston. (Yes, they were present for the infamous "I Heart T.S." t-shirt's debut.)
August 2016
Taylor traveled to upstate New York to attend Blake's baby shower held at the Bedford Post Inn. And it wouldn't be the last time the Grammy winner would make the trip to the couple's north-of-New-York-City home.
In October 2016, a source exclusively told E! News that Taylor spent a weekend with Blake and Ryan, even visiting Blake at the hospital after she gave birth to the pair's second daughter, Inez.
November 2017
After Taylor released a song titled "Gorgeous," off her sixth studio album, reputation, fans theorized that the child's voice featured in the track's intro belonged to James Reynolds, Blake and Ryan's oldest daughter. (Blake and Ryan "liked" Taylor's preview of the song on Instagram, only fueling speculation.)
And when Taylor released her album, she officially confirmed in the liner notes that the "baby intro voice" belongs to James.
Then there was the time Blake and Ryan had the most pure reaction to hearing the track during Taylor's concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough the following year. Only love for our mom and dad.
July 2020
Taylor delighted her fans when she released a surprise album, folklore, that she recorded while isolating during the coronavirus pandemic. One song that stood out was "betty," which uses the names James, Inez and, of course, Betty. Listeners theorized that Betty was the name of Blake and Ryan's third daughter as the private pair had yet to publicly announce it. And Ryan later confirmed the revelation.
"The names are the names of our kids but, you know, we trust her implicitly and she's very sensitive to any of that stuff," Ryan said on an August 2021 episode of The Jess Cagle Show. "And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids' names. But, I mean, what an honor. I don't know. We thought it was pretty damn amazing. We still do."
March 2021
When folklore took home the award for Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys, Taylor gave a sweet shoutout to the entire Reynolds family.
"I want to thank James, Inez and Betty and their parents," she said, "who are the second and third people that I play every new song that I write."
November 2021
Taylor and Blake went from BFFs to collaborators when the Betty Buzz founder directed the music video for "I Bet You Think About Me," a vault track from Red (Taylor's Version).
"I finally got to work with the brilliant, brave, & wickedly funny @blakelively on her directorial debut," Taylor raved on Instagram and Twitter. "Join us as we raise a toast, and a little hell."
That same month, Blake and Ryan helped Taylor celebrate her performance on Saturday Night Live, enjoying a night out in New York City with Cara Delevingne, Taylor's onetime boyfriend Joe Jonas, his wife Sophie Turner and The Queen's Gambit star and that night's host Anya Taylor-Joy.
June 2022
Blake and Ryan were in the audience to support Taylor when she appeared at the Tribeca Film Festival to promote the short film she directed for "all too well," the 10-minute version of her iconic 2012 breakup song about Jake Gyllenhaal.
November 2022
After the release of Taylor's 10th studio album Midnights, Ryan opened up about how his and Blake's daughters feel about the superstar being a close family friend.
"I think what's most exciting for them is that for the longest time they just thought Taylor's just a, you know, like an aunt, like a friend of mommy and daddy that's very, very close, almost family," the Deadpool star explained on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show. "And then they went to a concert one day and were like, 'Ohhhhh, this isn't a hobby.'"
Ryan went on to share that their children were such fans of Taylor's tunes that her music is "like a religion in their house" and revealed he, Blake and the girls had a Taylor-themed celebration planned after his interview.
"I'm not making this up. We are having a Taylor Swift Midnights dance party right after this," Ryan said. "It's Sunday. We're headed straight to the porch where we're doing a full dance number set to Midnights—swear words included. My favorite thing is when a 3-year-old is just throwing down the F-bomb in a song and has no idea."
April 2023
Shortly after it was confirmed that Taylor and her boyfriend Joe Alwyn had broken up after six years of dating, Taylor was spotted in a getaway car with Blake and Ryan. Literally.
The trio was spotted catching a ride together after having dinner at Manhattan hotspot Casa Cipriani April 19 amid Taylor's sold-out Eras stadium tour. But several days later, Taylor and Blake, who welcomed her fourth child earlier this year, ditched Ryan when they had a squad day out with Gigi Hadid and sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim. The group spent some quality time at the private club Zero Bond.
October 2023
The trio of friends attended a Kanasas City Chiefs game at Met Life Stadium to support Taylor's new boyfriend Travis Kelce.
Of the game, and of the excitement around taylor's NFL attendances, Ryan told Extra, "It's a lot of fun. The NFL right now is reaching a kind of fever pitch that is usually only reserved for the Super Bowl, but here we are at the fourth or fifth game of the year and it's already happening."
May 2024
During an appearance on Today, Ryan joked that he and Blake hadn't shared the name of their fourth child yet because they were still waiting on Taylor to share the moniker with them—a nod to her song "betty" on folklore.
"We always wait for Taylor to tell us what the child's name will be," the Deadpool star joked. "And, we'll say this: we're still waiting, so Taylor, let's maybe start. You know, she's a prolific writer. I mean, what are we doing here? And lazy is not a word I'd attach to Taylor."
Later that month, Blake attended one of the Grammy winner's Eras Tour shows in Madrid, where Taylor gave an onstage shoutout to her children.
July 2024
Taylor sent a massive congratulations to Ryan after Deadpool & Wolverine came out, by way of a pitch-perfect troll invoking his costar Hugh Jackman.
"Over the past few years I have watched one of my best friends on the planet pour every bit of his heart, soul, sweat, time, energy, jokes, pain, joy, rebellion, darkness, and magic into this film," she began her message, posted to her Instagram Story July 25. "He's created the best work of his life, and this film feels like an actual joy portal, a wild escape from reality, and an abs sandwich. I don't know how he did it."
"But that's just Hugh for you!" she cracked. "These other randoms crashed the photo and we were too polite to ask them to leave."
Taylor simultaneously confirmed her long-rumored godmother status in the Lively-Reynolds household, adding, "Shout out to Wade Wilson aka my godkids' sperm donor!"
December 2024
Before Blake sued Justin Baldoni in December 2024, she checked in with Taylor Dec. 4, to see if she was OK, acknowledging in text messages—included with a court filing unsealed Jan. 20, 2026—that she'd been feeling "like a bad friend lately because I was such a sad sack who only talked about my own s--t for months."
In response to Blake taking responsibility in case she'd caused any bad blood, Taylor replied, per the filing, "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. Yes, there has been a lot of Justin stuff but I've been through things like this before and I know how all consuming it is."
Noting Blake had sounded like "a mass corporate email" in recent messages, Taylor continued, "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."
Taylor added, "I know you feel attacked from all sides for ridiculous reasons, so you're feeling like you have to overly explain things... but it's me. That's just caused a little distance. And you don't need to apologize. Just come back, please."
August 2025
First came the speculation and then the debunking of the theory that Taylor's The Life of a Showgirl track "Ruin the Friendship" was about Blake.
Swifties and other math enthusiasts pointed out that Taylor had shared she wrote the songs comprising her 12th studio album while she was on tour—and that unfolded before Blake and Justin's legal battle exploded into the public consciousness.
Which seemingly would also mean that "Cancelled!" couldn't be about Blake, either, but that didn't stop people from wondering.
October 2025
When The Life of a Showgirl landed with a bang on Oct. 3, Blake smashed that like button on her friend's post heralding its release.