Blake Lively’s legal team calls Justin Baldoni’s allegations ‘categorically false’ as legal battle intensifies
Justin Baldoni’s legal team has leveled explosive new allegations against Blake Lively in their ongoing dispute.
According to documents filed Wednesday, Baldoni’s attorneys claim that the It Ends With Us star allegedly pressured her close friend Taylor Swift to publicly support her in the legal battle against Baldoni, reportedly threatening consequences if Swift didn’t comply, People reported.
In response, Lively’s attorney Mike Gottlieb issued a statement to Fox News Digital firmly denying the accusation, calling it “categorically false.”
“We unequivocally deny all of these so-called allegations, which are cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources and completely untethered from reality,” said Lively’s attorney, Mike Gottlieb. “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,” Gottlieb added.
On Wednesday, Blake Lively’s legal team submitted a motion asking the court to strike the accusations from the record, describing them as “baseless, unnecessary, improper, and abusive,” according to a statement to Fox News Digital.
“It should be unnecessary to respond to anonymously sourced, baseless allegations recklessly leveled without any supporting evidence,” the filing states. “It is worth stating for the record, however, that each of the allegations in the Freedman Letter is unequivocally and demonstrably false. As a legal matter, the Freedman Letter is improper.”
In a filing dated May 14, Justin Baldoni’s legal team argued that subpoenaing Taylor Swift is essential to their case.
“The Lively Defendants’ insistence that the subpoena seeks irrelevant information is wrong,” attorney Bryan Freedman wrote.
In the same filing, attorney Bryan Freedman claimed he was tipped off by an anonymous “source who is highly likely to have reliable information.” According to Freedman, the source alleged that Blake Lively asked Taylor Swift to delete specific text messages related to the case.
Freedman further alleged that Lively’s legal team reached out to Taylor Swift’s attorneys and “demanded that Ms. Swift release a statement of support for Ms. Lively.” He claimed they implied that if Swift refused, “private text messages of a personal nature in Ms. Lively’s possession would be released.”
Shortly after the allegations surfaced, a spokesperson for Taylor Swift firmly denied any involvement with the It Ends With Us film beyond the licensing of her song “My Tears Ricochet,” which was featured in the trailer and used in one scene.
“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,” Swift’s representative told Fox News Digital.
“The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, ‘My Tears Ricochet,’” the spokesperson added. “Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film—something 19 other artists also did—this document subpoena is clearly designed to exploit Taylor Swift’s name to generate tabloid clickbait, rather than focus on the actual facts of the case.”
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni co-starred in the romance drama It Ends With Us, based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel. The film premiered in August 2024, following a press tour marked by widespread rumors of behind-the-scenes tensions between the two leads. Not long after the film’s release, both Lively and Baldoni filed lawsuits against each other, escalating their professional dispute into a high-profile legal battle.
In January, Justin Baldoni filed a \$400 million lawsuit against Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of civil extortion, defamation, and other claims — a suit that also referenced Taylor Swift.
Baldoni’s legal action came shortly after Lively filed her own lawsuit in December, accusing the Jane the Virgin star of sexual harassment during the filming of It Ends With Us. Baldoni has strongly denied the allegations, claiming they were “false” and intended to repair Lively’s public image following negative press surrounding the film’s release. According to his lawsuit, Lively had allegedly assumed creative control over the movie, which contributed to behind-the-scenes tensions.
To support his claim that Lively overstepped her role in the production, Baldoni’s legal team alleged she used her friendship with Taylor Swift to exert pressure and make threats. One specific incident cited in the complaint involved Lively insisting on rewriting the film’s infamous rooftop scene. Though initially hesitant, Baldoni reportedly told her he would “take a look at what she put together,” suggesting strained but ongoing creative negotiations between the co-stars.
Afterward, Blake Lively invited Justin Baldoni to her New York City home, where he claimed that both Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds had pressured him into accepting the rewritten rooftop scene.
According to the complaint, Baldoni later felt compelled to text Lively to express appreciation for her work, despite the pressure he felt from the two megastars. The text, as described in the legal filing, read:
“I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor [emoji] You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and [sic] grateful to do this together).”
The message, Baldoni said, was sent to avoid further tension, but the complaint suggests that his words were influenced by the pressure from Lively, Reynolds, and Swift.
Blake Lively responded to Baldoni’s claims with a lengthy statement, referring to Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds as “dragons” who fiercely protect her.
Despite the escalating legal battle and the personal nature of the allegations, both sides have shown no signs of settling out of court. The case is currently scheduled to go to trial in March 2026 before a New York court.
