Taylor Swift and Blake Lively Reconcile Amid Justin Baldoni LawsuitApril 5, 2025 — 5‑minute read

In a devel­op­ment that’s both per­son­al and head­line-wor­thy, Tay­lor Swift and Blake Live­ly have report­ed­ly mend­ed their friend­ship after a peri­od of estrange­ment fueled by legal con­tro­ver­sy. The ten­sion between the two long-time best friends stemmed from Blake Lively’s ongo­ing legal dis­pute with actor and pro­duc­er Justin Bal­doni — a con­flict that unex­pect­ed­ly pulled Swift’s name into the mix.

A Decade-Long Friendship Tested

Tay­lor Swift and Blake Lively’s friend­ship has long been cel­e­brat­ed in celebri­ty cir­cles. From Live­ly attend­ing Swift’s icon­ic Fourth of July par­ties to their fam­i­lies spend­ing hol­i­days togeth­er, the two stars have main­tained a close bond for near­ly a decade. Live­ly even direct­ed Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me” music video in 2021, fur­ther cement­ing their cre­ative and per­son­al con­nec­tion.

But their rela­tion­ship hit a bump in the road in late 2024, when Live­ly filed a high-pro­file sex­u­al harass­ment law­suit against her It Ends With Us co-star and exec­u­tive pro­duc­er, Justin Bal­doni. The case took a turn when Baldoni’s legal team sub­mit­ted court doc­u­ments in which Swift’s name appeared — alleged­ly cit­ing a casu­al vis­it she made to Live­ly on set as evi­dence of “wit­ness pres­ence” dur­ing film­ing.

Although Swift was not accused of any wrong­do­ing and had no involve­ment in the pro­duc­tion, insid­ers say she was “blind­sided” and “deeply uncom­fort­able” being invol­un­tar­i­ly named in legal fil­ings. “She didn’t want to be any­where near the case,” a source close to the singer told Peo­ple mag­a­zine. “She vis­it­ed Blake once for cof­fee between takes. That’s it. But now her name is being dragged through court records.”

Behind the Rift

The men­tion of Swift in the law­suit report­ed­ly caused a brief cool­ing-off peri­od in their friend­ship. Accord­ing to sources famil­iar with the sit­u­a­tion, Swift felt that Live­ly’s legal team should have informed her before any ref­er­ence to her name was includ­ed in the law­suit doc­u­men­ta­tion. The lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion report­ed­ly led to a month-long stretch of silence between the two, with fans spec­u­lat­ing about the absence of pub­lic birth­day wish­es or social media inter­ac­tion dur­ing that time.

Blake Live­ly, for her part, was said to be deal­ing with the intense legal and emo­tion­al toll of the law­suit. Her team has main­tained that any men­tion of Swift was inci­den­tal and unin­ten­tion­al, not­ing that the legal fil­ings were “stan­dard pro­ce­dur­al inclu­sions” and did not reflect any strate­gic move on Lively’s part.

Reconciliation and Moving Forward

Despite the ten­sion, the friends have report­ed­ly rec­on­ciled in recent weeks. Accord­ing to Enter­tain­ment Tonight, Live­ly reached out to Swift per­son­al­ly in mid-March, offer­ing a heart­felt apol­o­gy and expla­na­tion for the sit­u­a­tion. Swift, who had just returned from a leg of her Eras Tour, was said to be recep­tive and under­stand­ing. The two report­ed­ly met for din­ner in New York City last week to clear the air.

“They’ve always had a sol­id friend­ship,” an anony­mous mutu­al friend shared. “This was nev­er about betray­al — just a real­ly unfor­tu­nate legal mess. Once they talked it out face-to-face, it was like old times again.”

As of now, nei­ther Live­ly nor Swift has issued any pub­lic state­ments about the rift or the rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, but eagle-eyed fans noticed both women lik­ing each oth­er’s Insta­gram posts over the past few days — a sub­tle but sig­nif­i­cant indi­ca­tion that their friend­ship is back on track.

Legal Storm Continues

While Swift may be out of the spot­light in this legal saga for now, the actu­al court bat­tle between Blake Live­ly and Justin Bal­doni is only just begin­ning. Live­ly filed her ini­tial suit in Decem­ber 2024, accus­ing Bal­doni of inap­pro­pri­ate behav­ior on set, includ­ing alleged ver­bal harass­ment and unwel­come advances. Bal­doni has denied all alle­ga­tions, call­ing them “false, defam­a­to­ry, and designed to dam­age [his] rep­u­ta­tion and career,” and filed a counter-law­suit for defama­tion.

The tri­al is ten­ta­tive­ly sched­uled to begin in March 2026. Whether Swift will be for­mal­ly deposed as a wit­ness remains uncer­tain, though legal experts sug­gest her brief pres­ence on set like­ly doesn’t meet the thresh­old for required tes­ti­mo­ny.

“If she’s not a mate­r­i­al wit­ness, her appear­ance could be dis­missed as hearsay,” said enter­tain­ment lawyer Rachel Siegel. “But it ulti­mate­ly depends on what both sides push for dur­ing dis­cov­ery.”

Public Reactions

Pub­lic reac­tion to the case — and Swift’s invol­un­tary involve­ment — has been divid­ed. Some fans expressed out­rage that she was men­tioned in the law­suit at all, while oth­ers expressed con­cern about the impact the sit­u­a­tion may have had on Lively’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life.

Mean­while, fans of the It Ends With Us film adap­ta­tion have been left in lim­bo. Pro­duc­tion has been paused indef­i­nite­ly, with no update from the stu­dio about resum­ing film­ing or replac­ing cast mem­bers. Live­ly, who was both a lead actress and co-pro­duc­er, has also stepped back from pub­lic appear­ances since the law­suit went pub­lic.

A Cautious Peace

For now, it seems that Tay­lor Swift and Blake Live­ly are back on good terms, choos­ing to pri­or­i­tize their friend­ship over legal fall­out. Whether this peace holds steady as the law­suit con­tin­ues to devel­op remains to be seen — but for fans of both women, it’s reas­sur­ing to know that their bond, forged in fame and friend­ship, has weath­ered yet anoth­er storm.