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Justin Baldoni's chief lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has accused Blake Lively of allegedly threatening singer Taylor Swift about leaking her private text messages if she did not publicly support her in her legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star. Freedman's comments came after Swift was officially subpoenaed as a witness in the latest developments of the Lively vs. Baldoni case.
In a legal letter filed in court on May 14, 2025 (via The Hollywood Reporter), Justin Baldoni's chief lawyer, Bryan Freedman, accused Blake Lively's lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, of threatening Taylor Swift. He claimed that Gottlieb contacted Swift's legal firm, Venable LLP and demanded that the singer release a statement supporting the actress.
"They demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively, intimating that, if Ms. Swift refused to do so, private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively's possession would be made public."
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Further, Freedman claimed that a representative for Swift referred to these alleged "inappropriate and apparently extortionate threats" in at least one text message to Lively's legal team. The attorney provided this reasoning to justify his subpoena to Taylor Swift's legal firm, Venable LLP, on May 9.
He mentioned that he is seeking such communications between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift's legal teams as it could provide valuable information to substantiate his client's claims. It could also allegedly prove Lively's efforts to coerce a key witness. Freedman also referred to another undisclosed individual who is "highly likely to have reliable information" as the source for his information.
Taylor Swift was officially subpoenaed in the Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni legal case last week. However, the singer's reps denied her involvement in the film in question, It Ends With Us, and the legal saga thereafter. Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds' legal team, also filed a motion to quash the subpoena issued for Swift. Freedman's letter came in response to the same.
Blake Lively's representatives deny claims of threatening Taylor Swift amid legal battle with Justin Baldoni
On the same day, May 14, 2025, Blake Lively's legal team issued a statement denying Bryan Freedman's claims, calling them "categorically false." Her lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, said:
"We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources, and completely untethered from reality. 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. We will imminently file motions with the court to hold these attorneys accountable for their misconduct here."
Taylor Swift's name has often been involved in the Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni case since it began in December 2024. Lively accused her co-star and director of alleged s*xual harassment, workplace misbehaviour, and indulging in a smear campaign to tarnish her reputation. Justin Baldoni denied her allegations and countersued Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in a $400 million lawsuit for defamation and extortion.
During the legal saga, multiple alleged texts from Blake Lively mentioning Taylor Swift came up. In some of the messages, Lively allegedly referred to Swift as one of her "dragons" alongside Ryan Reynolds. The actress called herself the Khaleesi (Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones) in the same texts, seemingly alleging that Swift and Reynolds will protect her.
Justin Baldoni also claimed that the pop star was present during a meeting at Lively and Reynolds' apartment in New York City regarding some of Lively's rewrites of It Ends With Us scenes. During this meeting, Justin Baldoni claimed to have felt intimidated by Taylor Swift and her support for Blake Lively's rewrites. Notably, one of Swift's songs, My Tears Ricochet, was used in the film's soundtrack.
Despite Justin Baldoni's claims, Swift's reps denied any involvement from the singer's side in the making of It Ends With Us. Shortly after she was subpoenaed in the case, Swift's spokesperson said:
"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, she did not even see It Ends With Us until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history."
They also mentioned that the only way Swift was involved in the case was by giving permission for the use of her song in the film.
"The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, 'My Tears Ricochet.' Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift’s name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case," the singer's reps said.
Blake Lively's reps also slammed Justin Baldoni's side for subpoenaing Swift in the legal battle. Further developments are awaited as the two parties are set to face each other in court in March 2026.
