Blake Lively and Taylor Swift had a heated heart to heart
Private text messages unsealed this week suggest the strain between Lively and Swift began quietly long before any public signs were there.
The exchange, included in legal documents released Tuesday ahead of a Jan. 22 summary judgment hearing in Lively’s lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, shows the longtime friends addressing a growing emotional gap in real time.
In the messages, which are not labeled with names but described elsewhere in the archives as being between Lively and Swift, Lively first reached out with concerns.
She admits to feeling self-absorbed during a difficult time and worries that she may have inadvertently hurt Swift.
“I have no reason to ask, but I don’t know [sic]I’ve been feeling like I should… is everything ok?” she writes, adding that husband Ryan Reynolds encouraged her to speak directly.
Lively goes on to say that she wanted the chance to “be a better friend” and emphasizes that she doesn’t expect anything more from Swift, given how overwhelmed and busy the singer has been.
Swift responds more than an hour later with honesty, saying Lively’s instincts weren’t off.
She tells her friend that she has been “exhausted in every way in my life” and noticed “a little bit of a shift” in how Lively had been communicating, especially in the midst of what she refers to as “a lot of Justin stuff.”
Swift explains that while Lively’s messages were friendly, they sometimes felt impersonal.
“It felt like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees,” she writes, before adding that she missed “my funny, dark, plain-spoken friend.” Swift reassures her, “You don’t have to apologize. Just come back, please.”
Lively responds hours later, admitting that the feedback has hit home.
She says she became “digitally paranoid” and realized she had been texting “as I type. Not as I speak.”
She attributes this change to feeling deeply misunderstood and shaken by her experience, clearly writing: “This f—ing guy and what he did to me gave me an identity crisis. Rightfully so.”
The actress also says that what hurt the most was not her critics, but friends she thought were allies who quietly disappeared.
That fear, she admits, probably caused her to overcompensate with those who stayed. Lively ends by thanking Swift, apologizing “to you… to me and to our kids” and venting her anger: “F— that guy and f— his whole bunch of supervillains.”
The exchange took place just days before Swift wrapped up her Eras Tour, with Lively closing on a supportive note about being excited for Swift to finally be done with “suitcases, constant sinus infections and cracked kneecaps.”
Sources previously said the friendship became complicated amid Lively’s legal battle with Baldoni, whom she has accused of sexual harassment and retaliation, allegations he denied.
The newly revealed texts offer a rare, candid look at how that turmoil spilled over into one of Hollywood’s most talked-about friendships.
