Overview

• U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman ruled on June 18 that messages between Lively and Swift about It Ends With Us are “reasonably tailored” to uncover information relevant to allegations of harassment and retaliation.
• A protective order will safeguard the exchanged texts from leaking to the press while discovery remains ongoing.
• Lively’s team had sought to block the messages as irrelevant and accused Baldoni of using Swift’s name for public relations leverage.
• Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds and Sloane and his $250 million defamation suit against The New York Times were dismissed by Judge Liman earlier this month.
• The dispute began in December 2024 when Lively filed a harassment complaint and is scheduled to go to trial in March 2026.