Justin Baldoni just secured a victory in his ongoing legal battle with It Ends With Us co-star Blake Lively.
On June 18, 2025, the presiding judge in the case, Judge Lewis L. Liman of New York City, ruled in favor of Baldoni, granting him access to messages shared between the actress and her estranged bestie Taylor Swift.
According to the judge, the conversation is “relevant” to the case, and he denied Blake’s motion for a protective order to keep her communications with the Love Story singer private and excluded from the legal proceedings.
Judge Liman wrote in his order, which was obtained by E! News,
“Lively has represented that Swift had knowledge of complaints or discussions about the working environment on the film, among other issues, the requests for messages with Swift regarding the film and this action are reasonably tailored to discover information that would prove or disprove Lively’s harassment and retaliation claims”.
Insider Spills On Blake And Taylor’s Strained Bond After Her Legal Win
A few days earlier, on June 9, 2025, a judge had dismissed Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against the Another Simple Favor star. In light of this legal win, an anonymous source close to Lively and Swift spilled exclusive details about the current state of their strained friendship.
Offering insight into Blake’s mindset following the courtroom victory, and her hopes of mending ties with the pop sensation, the insider told Us Weekly,
“Although it was great news for Blake, she hasn’t rekindled her friendship with Taylor yet. [However,] Blake is hopeful that Taylor will come around… As of now, there is still distance between the two”.
The heated feud between the co-stars first began in December 2024, when Blake filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company, and several others involved in the film. She accused them of sexual harassment and of orchestrating a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation.
In January 2025, Justin firmly denied the allegations and fired back with a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Blake, her husband Ryan Reynolds, and others, alleging civil extortion and defamation, which has since been dismissed.
In his explosive filing, Baldoni claimed the Midnight Rain singer was present at a tense meeting inside Lively’s NYC penthouse, where Blake allegedly pressured him to use her rewritten version of a scene, threatening to use her close ties to Ryan and Taylor to get her way over his original idea.
Moreover, back on May 14, Justin’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, filed explosive court documents accusing Lively’s legal team of pressuring Taylor into publicly supporting her in the legal drama. According to Freedman,
“If Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages [between the two] of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released”.
With Taylor now entangled in the courtroom chaos, this legal drama shows no signs of slowing down. As secrets unravel and friendships hang in the balance, all eyes remain glued to the next chapter in Hollywood’s messiest feud yet.