Blake Lively Accused of Threatening to Leak Taylor Swift Texts in Escalating Legal Battle with Justin Baldoni Over ‘It Ends With Us’

Published: May 14, 2025, 9:06 PM WAT

In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing legal feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the director and co-star of the 2024 film It Ends With Us, new court filings have introduced a bombshell allegation: Lively allegedly threatened to leak private text messages from her longtime friend Taylor Swift to coerce the pop star into publicly supporting her in the dispute. The claim, made by Baldoni’s legal team on May 14, 2025, has been met with fierce denial from Lively’s attorney, who called the accusation “categorically false” and “completely untethered from reality.”

The legal battle, which has already captivated Hollywood and tabloid audiences alike, stems from the production of It Ends With Us, a romantic drama based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. The film, which premiered in August 2024 and grossed $351 million worldwide against a $25 million budget, was a commercial success but has since been mired in controversy. Lively, who starred in the film alongside Baldoni, sued him earlier this year, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation on set. Baldoni, who also directed the film, has denied the allegations and responded with a $400 million defamation countersuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and their publicist, accusing them of extortion, defamation, and invasion of privacy.

The Allegation: Threats Involving Taylor Swift

The latest twist in this legal saga came to light in a letter filed by Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. According to the filing, reported by People magazine in a post on X at 20:04 UTC, Freedman claims to have received information from an anonymous “source who is highly likely to have reliable information.” The source alleges that Lively pressured Swift, 35, to issue a public statement of support for her amid the legal battle. When Swift reportedly refused, Lively’s attorney allegedly contacted Swift’s legal team, “intimating that if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.”

Freedman further alleges that Swift’s lawyer responded to these “inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats,” and Baldoni’s team is now seeking to obtain those communications as potential evidence of Lively attempting to “intimidate and coerce a percipient witness in this litigation.” The filing was made in response to pushback from Lively and Reynolds on a subpoena issued to Venable, the law firm representing Swift, which had already drawn significant attention when it was first reported on May 9, 2025, by outlets like Variety and CNN.

Lively’s Denial and Swift’s Response

Lively’s attorney, Mike Gottlieb, issued a scathing rebuttal to the allegations in a statement to People. “This is categorically false,” Gottlieb said. “We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality.” He accused Baldoni’s legal team of turning a serious case involving sexual harassment and retaliation into a spectacle, adding, “This is what we have come to expect from the Wayfarer parties’ lawyers, who appear to love nothing more than shooting first, without any evidence, and with no care for the people they are harming in the process.” Gottlieb also noted that Lively’s team plans to file motions to hold Baldoni’s attorneys accountable for what they describe as misconduct.

Swift, who has been a close friend of Lively’s for years and is godmother to Lively’s four children, found herself unwillingly dragged into the legal fray. On May 9, 2025, when news of her subpoena first broke, Swift’s spokesperson issued a fiery statement distancing the pop star from the controversy. “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,” the statement read, as reported by CBS News. Swift’s only connection to It Ends With Us was licensing her song “My Tears Ricochet” for the soundtrack, a contribution shared by 19 other artists. The spokesperson accused Baldoni’s team of using Swift’s name to “draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case.”

The Roots of the Conflict

The legal battle between Lively and Baldoni has its origins in the troubled production of It Ends With Us. Reports of tension between the two emerged during the film’s promotional tour, with Lively facing criticism for not addressing the movie’s themes of domestic violence and emotional abuse, while Baldoni was accused of fostering an uncomfortable work environment. According to a Wikipedia entry updated on May 12, 2025, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation after she raised concerns about workplace safety. She also sued two of Baldoni’s public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, for allegedly violating federal and California laws by retaliating against her.

Baldoni, in turn, has denied all allegations and countersued in January 2025, seeking $400 million in damages. His lawsuit, detailed in reports from Variety and CNN, claims that Lively and Reynolds attempted to “hijack” the film and destroy his reputation with false allegations. Text messages included in Baldoni’s filing reveal creative disagreements, with Lively referring to Swift and Reynolds as her “dragons”—a nod to Game of Thrones—and suggesting she had powerful allies in her corner. Baldoni’s lawyers have argued that he was up against “two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world,” namely Swift and Reynolds, who were “not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”

A Web of Lawsuits and Subpoenas

The legal drama has expanded to involve other high-profile figures. A source told People that Hugh Jackman, who has been spotted with Lively, Reynolds, and Swift at events like NFL games, might also face a subpoena, though an insider dismissed such claims as “smoke and mirrors” meant to distract from the allegations against Baldoni. Meanwhile, Baldoni has filed a separate $250 million libel lawsuit against The New York Times for its reporting on Lively’s initial allegations, further complicating the legal landscape.

Lively has also taken legal action to dismiss Baldoni’s claims, invoking a 2023 California law that protects individuals from defamation lawsuits when reporting sexual harassment without malice. On February 20, 2025, her public relations representative, Leslie Sloane, filed a motion to dismiss Baldoni’s lawsuit, arguing that Lively’s statements were either opinions or substantially true, as noted in the Wikipedia entry.

The Bigger Picture

The controversy surrounding It Ends With Us has cast a shadow over what was initially a box