Why is Taylor Swift caught up in the Baldoni-Lively legal battle?
Four months ago, the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni began. Now, after a string of countersuits, Taylor Swift has been dragged into the fray.
On May 9, the pop star was subpoenaed as a witness in Baldoni's $US400 million defamation countersuit against his It Ends With Us co-star. The trial is set for March 2026. Here's what Swift has to do with it.
How is Swift involved?
Swift and Lively have been close friends since 2015. Her song, My Tears Ricochet, featured in It Ends With Us, the dark romance film that Baldoni directed and starred in with Lively.
In January, Baldoni filed a lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging defamation and extortion. The document referenced a text sent to Lively from Baldoni after allegedly reviewing her edits on the film's rooftop scene.
'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),' Baldoni wrote.
In another message, Lively mentioned 'her dragons', a Game of Thrones reference that Baldoni claims referred to Swift and Reynolds.
'You'll appreciate that I'm Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons … My dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine.'
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