A federal judge denied Blake Lively’s request to keep some of her private text messages with Taylor Swift from Justin Baldoni, a major legal victory for the embattled “It Ends with Us” actor and director.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman deemed in a court filing Wednesday that Baldoni’s requests for some messages between Lively and Swift were permissible.
Baldoni’s legal team will have access to text messages only about “It Ends with Us,” the judge ruled. Lively and Baldoni starred in the 2024 film, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling romance novel “It Ends with Us,” which is at the center of their ongoing legal battle.
“Given that 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,” the judge wrote.
A representative for Lively denounced the decision.
“Baldoni’s desire to drag Taylor Swift into this has been constant dating back to August 2024 … a strategy to influence the ‘TS fanbase,’” the spokesperson said.
“We will continue to call out Baldoni’s relentless efforts to exploit Ms Swift’s popularity, which from day one has been nothing more than a distraction from the serious sexual harassment and retaliation accusations he and the Wayfarer parties are facing,” the spokesperson added, referring to the film’s production company.
