Taylor Swift and Blake Lively’s friendship has been through some serious ups and downs, especially with the ongoing legal battle involving Lively and director Justin Baldoni.
The pop superstar and the actress are working toward being “on good terms” again, but things aren’t the same as before, a source exclusively told PEOPLE.
The two haven’t been spending as much time together recently, and Swift is cautious about trusting Lively fully again, knowing it will take time to rebuild what they had. Their friendship goes back to 2015, sparked after Lively shared a playful photo from a L’Oréal campaign that referenced Swift’s “Bad Blood” music video, which got Swift’s attention and led to the two spending more time together over the years.
However, the friendship hit a rough patch when Swift was dragged into Lively’s ongoing legal drama with Justin Baldoni. In December 2024, Lively filed a complaint accusing Baldoni of sexually harassing her on the set of their film adaptation of It Ends With Us, a novel by Colleen Hoover. Lively also alleged that Baldoni tried to ruin her reputation through a calculated smear campaign, detailed in a New York Times exposé titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
Shortly after the complaint, Lively officially sued Baldoni for sexual harassment, breach of contract, emotional distress, and invasion of privacy. Baldoni denied all accusations and fired back with his own $400 million countersuit for defamation and extortion, which included Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds and their PR team as defendants.
In his countersuit, Baldoni claimed Taylor Swift was present at a meeting in Lively’s New York City penthouse, where Lively and Baldoni discussed revisions to their movie’s rooftop scene. Baldoni alleged that Lively used her relationships with Reynolds and Swift as a form of intimidation, calling them “absolute titans” in their fields and referring to them as her “dragons” who protect her.
Baldoni even texted Lively, praising her script changes and mentioning that he would have felt the same way without the input of Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift, suggesting their influence on the project was significant.
Despite the legal drama, the source revealed that Swift and Lively are trying to patch things up, but the friendship isn’t back to how it was. Swift is taking a cautious approach, trying to rebuild trust slowly. The trial for Lively versus Wayfarer Studios and others, which will handle both lawsuits, is scheduled for March 2026, so the legal battle is far from over.
This whole situation has clearly complicated what was once a close friendship between two of Hollywood’s most admired women. While they’re not enemies, they definitely aren’t as close as they used to be, and it remains to be seen how their relationship will evolve once the court case wraps up.
