Where Blake Lively’s Friendships Stand Amid Justin Baldoni Legal Drama: Taylor Swift and More

As Blake Lively’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni wages on, the actress has faced some ups and downs with some of her closest friends.

The Gossip Girl alum has been tangled up in legal drama since she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her It Ends With Us costar and director in December 2024, accusing him of inappropriate on-set behavior and attempting to launch a smear campaign against her to ruin her reputation.

Baldoni filed back with his own lawsuits against The New York Times — who first reported on Lively’s case — and Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and her publicist, Leslie Sloane. Among his many counterclaims and allegations, Baldoni accused Lively of attempting to take over creative control of It Ends With Us and shutting him out of the film’s promotion and premiere.

Both sides and their legal teams — as well as the NY Times — have vehemently denied the other’s allegations. Lively, Reynolds, Sloane and the NY Times have all filed to be dismissed from Baldoni’s lawsuits. A trial date has been set for March 9, 2026, with Lively set to testify.

Several members of Lively and Reynolds’ inner circle have been dragged into the drama, as Baldoni accused Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine of poking fun at him through the character of Nicepool. Taylor Swift, meanwhile, was subpoenaed in May 2025 after her name was brought up in both Lively and Baldoni’s claims.

Scroll down to see where Lively currently stands with some of her most famous friends:

Taylor Swift

The Grammy winner has been involved in the It Ends With Us drama since the very beginning. In her December 2024 lawsuit, Lively claimed Baldoni named Swift while discussing his alleged smear campaign plans.

Baldoni, meanwhile, mentioned Swift in a text featured in his $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and Sloane in January 2025. “Was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did. It really does hep [sic] a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor),” he allegedly texted Lively about one of the movie’s scenes.

He also claimed Lively referred to Swift as one of her “dragons” while comparing herself to Khaleesi from Game of Thrones in other text messages.

Though Swift’s reps denied she had any involvement in the film’s production aside from allowing the usage of her song “My Tears Ricochet,” Swift was subpoenaed in May 2025. Shortly after, Baldoni’s team alleged that a source close to Swift informed them that Lively’s lawyers threatened to leak texts between the two friends if Swift did not “release a statement of support” for her. Lively’s team slammed the claims in a statement to Us Weekly, calling them “irrelevant, improper and inflammatory.”

The legal battle has seemingly taken a toll on Lively and Swift’s friendship. “Taylor is very uncomfortable about being pulled into the lawsuit. It’s a huge thing now. Her friendship with Blake is strained,” a source exclusively told Us in May 2025. A second insider added, “Taylor was shocked to be referred to in work messages sent to Blake’s director and to be brought into this.”

Gigi Hadid

Hadid has yet to publicly address Lively’s legal case, though she previously joined her on the red carpet of Deadpool & Wolverine’s New York City premiere in July 2024, one month before the release of of It Ends With Us. As of May 2025, she still follows Lively and Reynolds on Instagram.

Amid reports of Lively and Swift’s strained relationship, a source exclusively told Us in May 2025 that “Gigi has always had a closer friendship with Taylor and stands by her. She has been a very loyal friend to Taylor, and they have been best friends for a decade now.”

While the insider noted that Hadid “hasn’t necessarily chosen sides” in Lively and Baldoni’s drama, she has “naturally” distanced herself from the Age of Adaline star. “[Gigi] doesn’t want to be involved at all,” the source explained. “They haven’t been in touch much this year and it does have everything to do with the lawsuit.”

Hugh Jackman

Like Hadid, Jackman has not publicly addressed the It Ends With Us controversy, despite his longtime friendship with Lively and Reynolds. However, the actor has found himself involved in the drama as Baldoni accused Deadpool & Wolverine of mocking him through the character of Nicepool, requesting in January 2025 that The Walt Disney Company’s Bob Iger and Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige “preserve all existing documents and data relevant” related to his claims. (Jackman’s role as Wolverine marked his only involvement in the project.)

In April 2025, it was reported that Jackman and Swift could be subpoenaed, though Jackman has yet to officially be brought into the case. That same month, Baldoni’s lawyers slammed Marvel for requesting to be removed from his lawsuits against Lively.

Jackman supported Lively at her Another Simple Favor premiere in April 2025, and she and Reynolds attended Jackman’s off-Broadway play, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, that same month. He still follows both Lively and Reynolds on Instagram, hinting that his friendship with the couple remains intact.

Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn

Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars voiced their support for their friend after she filed her December 2024 lawsuit against Baldoni. “As Blake’s friends and sisters for over twenty years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” the trio wrote in a joint Instagram statement at the time.

They continued, “Throughout the filming of It Ends with Us, we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice. Most upsetting is the unabashed exploitation of domestic violence survivors’ stories to silence a woman who asked for safety. The hypocrisy is astounding.”

The actresses went on to state that they were “struck by the reality that even if a woman is as strong, celebrated, and resourced as our friend Blake, she can face forceful retaliation for daring to ask for a safe working environment,” and noted that they were “inspired by our sister’s courage to stand up for herself and others.”

They ended their statement by encouraging followers to read the NY Times’ full reporting of Lively’s lawsuit.

The group have not addressed the lawsuits since, though Ferrera and Tamblyn continue to follow Lively and Reynolds on Instagram. The couple are not among the three Instagram accounts Bledel follows as of May 2025.

Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson

Lively made a brief appearance in a May 2025 episode of McElhenney and Reynolds’ FX series Welcome to Wrexham. The episode was filmed in August 2024, the same month as It Ends With Us’ release. Lively also attended a Wrexham AFC game on April 26, 2025, and shared a sweet note about McElhenney and Reynolds via her Instagram Stories.

After initially staying silent about the legal drama, McElhenney and Olson voiced their support for Lively in May 2025. “It’s just our way of staying connected and navigating something together,” he said in a joint Variety interview with his wife. “And also me giving and showing as much support as I possibly can with all the other stuff that he’s got going on, that I know is so difficult and challenging.”

He added, “We both are just trying to offer our support in any way that we can that doesn’t just simply add oxygen to the fire.”

While McElhenney follows both Lively and Reynolds on Instagram, Olson only follows Reynolds as of May 2025.

Shawn Levy

Levy reportedly shared a link to the NY Times’ reporting of Lively’s December 2204 lawsuit via his Instagram Story at the time, writing, “Proud to call @blakelively a friend,” per multiple outlets. Though Levy has not spoken out since, the Deadpool & Wolverine director is associated with the drama via Baldoni’s claims about the Marvel project.

He still follows both Lively and Reynolds via Instagram.

Salma Hayek

Hayek has been a member of Lively’s inner circle for several years, having worked with her on the 2012 crime drama Savages and with Reynolds on 2017’s The Hitman’s Bodyguard and 2021’s Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.

Amid Lively and Baldoni’s legal drama, Hayek subtly showed support by revealing she is close with Lively and Reynolds’ four kids — daughters James, Inez and Betty, and son Olin. “I got a chance to go play with them,” she told E! News in May 2025. “They got to see the tía Salma. … They understand Spanish, and they’re lovely.”

She follows both Lively and Reynolds on Instagram.

Anna Kendrick

While Kendrick follows her A Simple Favor costar on Instagram, she has stayed hushed on the Lively and Baldoni scandal. The actress’ friendship status was brought into question amid press for their film Another Simple Favor, though a source exclusively told Us in February 2025 that “there aren’t any issues between Blake and Anna right now.”

Kendrick avoided questions about Lively’s lawsuit drama at the film’s SXSW premiere the following month, after which director Paul Feig denied speculation there was bad blood between them at the film festival.

Robyn Lively and Bart Johnson

Blake’s half-sister and brother-in-law have been some of her biggest supporters amid her legal fight against Baldoni, with Johnson calling her “my hero” in a statement following her December 2024 lawsuit.

Johnson went on to call Baldoni in a since-deleted X post a “fraud” and poked fun at his “man bun.” Johnson later apologized for his comments in a January 2025 X post, writing, “Anytime I’ve said anything unkind about someone I’ve regretted it. … Even in times where it might ‘feel’ justified and doing the right thing, it makes no difference. There’s a better way.”