Blake Lively’s lawyers are calling out Justin Baldoni’s legal team for making purportedly false claims about Lively allegedly pressuring friend Taylor Swift to publicly support her
Her legal team claimed allegations from Baldoni’s legal team are “unequivocally and demonstrably false”
Baldoni’s legal team claims they got the information from an anonymous “source who is highly likely to have reliable information”
Blake Lively’s legal team has filed a response to a bombshell claim made by Justin Baldoni’s lawyers about the actress’s friendship with Taylor Swift.
In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Lewis J. Liman on Wednesday, May 14, lawyers for Lively asked for the letter signed by Baldoni’s attorney Bryan Freedman — which alleged that Lively pressured Swift to publicly support her amid her legal battle with Baldoni, her It Ends With Us costar and director —to be struck.
“That letter, which was not filed with any evidentiary support of any kind, much less anything under oath, falsely accuses Ms. Lively, and her counsel, of engaging in ‘witness tampering and evidence spoliation’ based on an undisclosed anonymous source,” Lively’s legal team wrote.
“It should be unnecessary to respond to anonymously sourced, baseless, allegations recklessly leveled without any supporting evidence,” they continued. “It is worth stating for the record, however, that each of the allegations in the Freedman Letter is unequivocally and demonstrably false.”
“The apparent intent of the Freedman Letter is to launder scandalous and defamatory allegations about Ms. Lively and opposing counsel into the press by abusing the Court’s docket,” the attorneys added.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty; Jon Kopaloff/WireImage
Blake Lively and Taylor Swift
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In their letter filed earlier on May 14, Baldoni’s attorneys alleged they had learned through an anonymous “source” that Lively had threatened to release private texts between her and Swift if the singer did not publicly support her.
There is no evidence of the claims yet, but Freedman said a recently submitted subpoena seeks to obtain these communications to use in their case against Lively.
After it was revealed that Swift, 35, had been issued a subpoena in the ongoing legal battle, the singer’s spokesperson made a statement distancing Swift from It Ends With Us and the legal drama.
“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,” said her rep.
Nicole Rivelli/Sony Pictures
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in ‘It Ends With Us’
Lively, 37, first sued Baldoni, 41, who was her director and costar in the film, back in December, accusing him of sexual harassment, “disturbing” and “unprofessional” behavior on set and a retaliatory smear campaign.
Baldoni denied the allegations and filed a countersuit in January alleging defamation and extortion against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicity team.
In his countersuit, the actor claimed Swift and Reynolds pressured him into accepting a rewrite by Lively and described an alleged meeting at Lively and Reynolds’ penthouse during which the singer “began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction.”
Baldoni’s lawyers also included an alleged text exchange in which Lively compared herself to Khaleesi from Game of Thrones and referred to her husband and Swift as her “dragons.”
The trial for Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al., which will cover both lawsuits, is scheduled for March 2026.
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