A federal judge has denied Blake Lively’s request to keep certain private text messages between her and Taylor Swift from being shared with Justin Baldoni. This ruling represents a significant legal victory for Baldoni, who is both the actor and director of “It Ends with Us” via NBC News.
In a court filing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman determined that Baldoni’s requests for some messages exchanged between Lively and Swift were permissible. However, the judge specified that Baldoni’s legal team will only have access to messages related to “It Ends with Us.” This film, set to release in 2024, is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling romance novel and lies at the heart of the ongoing legal dispute.
“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.
“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.
