The reason Taylor Swift's father, Scott Swift, approached Justin Baldoni's team revolves around an alleged attempt by Blake Lively to leverage Taylor Swift's support in her ongoing legal battle with Baldoni. The legal conflict between Lively and Baldoni began in December 2024 when Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and his production company, Wayfarer Studios, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of their movie, It Ends with Us, and claiming he and his team launched a smear campaign against her. Baldoni denied the claims and countersued Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and others for $400 million, alleging extortion and defamation.
Earlier this month, Taylor Swift was subpoenaed as a witness in the case. However, Baldoni's team later withdrew the subpoena. It has been reported that this withdrawal occurred because Baldoni's team received information from someone within Swift's camp. According to reports, Scott Swift, Taylor's father, was the individual who provided this information.
Baldoni's legal team claimed Blake Lively threatened to release text exchanges with Taylor Swift unless the pop star publicly supported her. Lively's team has denied these accusations, calling them "categorically false." Despite these denials, sources indicate that Scott Swift shared information about the alleged text threat with Baldoni's team.
The motivation behind Scott Swift's actions was reportedly to protect his daughter from being further entangled in the legal dispute between Lively and Baldoni. Sources claim Scott Swift did not want his daughter to be dragged into the matter and voluntarily provided the information as part of an agreement that would lead to Baldoni's team withdrawing their subpoena against Taylor.
According to court documents, Lively allegedly asked Swift to delete their messages. Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, stated in a court filing that Lively's lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, contacted Taylor's law firm, demanding that Swift release a statement of support for Lively. The filing alleged that Gottlieb implied that if Swift refused, private text messages of a personal nature in Lively's possession would be released. Freedman further stated in a sworn affidavit that he had a conversation with someone closely linked to Taylor who revealed this information. Although the identity of this person was not initially disclosed, it has since been reported to be Scott Swift.
Lively's lawyer has refuted these allegations, dismissing them as "cowardly sourced to supposed anonymous sources and completely untethered from reality." However, an insider insisted that Lively's team attempted to "extort" Taylor by threatening to release private information to gain her support.
Furthermore, Swift was accused of influencing creative changes in Baldoni's film, allegedly pressuring him to follow suggestions made by Blake Lively. Baldoni claimed that he was invited to a dinner with Lively and her "dragons," referring to Lively and Ryan Reynolds, who he felt were using their influence to make things difficult for him. Swift's team released a statement denying her involvement in the script rewrite, stating that her only connection to the film was regarding her music.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens has also commented on the situation, claiming that Scott Swift made a "savage move" to protect his daughter from the alleged blackmail attempt.
In summary, Scott Swift reportedly approached Justin Baldoni's team to prevent his daughter, Taylor Swift, from being drawn further into the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, allegedly offering information about Lively's attempt to pressure Taylor into offering public support through the threat of releasing private text messages.