Blake Lively and Taylor Swift friendship has been going strong for a decade.
They duo were first photographed together 10 years ago, and since then, the singer and actor have developed a close bond. Over the past decade, the two have spent many girls’ nights together around the world and have frequently praised the other’s talents.
Swift has also become friends with Lively’s husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, with the “Deadpool” star occasionally joining them for dinner nights in New York City or football games to cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs.
At this point, the pop star has basically become a member of Lively and Reynolds’ family. She included the names of three of the couple’s four children on her Grammy-winning 2020 album “Folklore” and has revealed that she is a godmother to Lively and Reynolds’ daughters.
So how did the “Fortnight” singer and the “Gossip Girl” star become so close? Read on for a full timeline of Taylor Swift and Blake Lively’s friendship.
2015: Petting koalas together
In 2015, Lively declared her “love” for Swift after fans thought there was bad blood between the two.
“Soooo, turns out this WASN’T a video shoot for John Legend’s cover of Bad Blood,” Lively captioned a photo posted for her L’Oreal campaign, in part, according to People.
“@lorealparisofficial blew it out for this one,” she added. “My #pinkobsession is exposed now. Ok your turn. I won’t tell! #AlsoTurnsOutJohnLegendIsntCoveringBadBlood Time to start a petition!”
Fans thought the “Bad Blood” mention was a reference to Swift and characterized the caption as shady. Lively later clarified, according to People.
“Umm whoever thought I was throwin’ shade clearly doesn’t know I have a ‘Taylor Swift Please Be My Wife Voo Doo Doll,’” she wrote.
“Love my Canadian family almost as much as I love Taylor Lively,” she wrote. “I mean Swift. Ok, FIIINE we can hyphenate our last names. Xo Blake Swift-Lively 4eva.”
Toward the end of the year, in December, Swift shared a photo of them in which she was holding a koala and Lively was petting it, according to People, marking the first publicly shared photo of them.
2017: Lively’s daughter is featured on a Swift song
On the 2017 Swift album “Reputation,” Lively’s eldest daughter, James, opens the track “Gorgeous.”
The then-2-year-old’s voice is heard saying the word “gorgeous,” just before Swift comes in with the song.
James is credited in the album booklet as “baby intro voice,” according to People.
2020: Swift mentions 3 of Lively’s kids in her song ‘Betty’
In her 2020 song “Betty,” Swift sings about two characters named “James” and “Inez.”
As it turns out, those three names — James, Inez and Betty — are also the names of Lively’s kids, though the name Betty wasn’t publicly known at the time the song was released. The song details young love that’s been turned into a love triangle.
Swift performed the song while on an “Eras Tour” stop in Philadelphia in May 2023 and introduced it by saying: “I named the characters after real people in my life who I love more than anything. And their names are James, Inez and Betty,” Swift said, according to USA Today.
2021: Lively’s family is one of the first people who Swift plays her new songs for
Swift won the album of the year Grammy in 2021 for “Folklore” and thanked Lively and her family in her acceptance speech.
“I want to thank James, Inez and Betty and their parents who are the second and third people that I play every new song that I write,” she said.
Also in 2021: Elle reported that the two women went trick-or-treating together in New York. Plus, Lively made her directorial debut that year, too, when she directed Swift’s music video for “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version),” according to People.
2022: Celebrating ACM Award nomination
The Academy of Country Music Awards announced that the music video Lively directed was nominated for video of the year. Swift celebrated the news on her Instagram story, according to People.
“AHHHHHHH CONGRATS @blakelively, MILES AND @keleighteller!!!! BIG GROUP HUG!” Swift wrote, adding: “I loved making this video and it’s so cool to see the @acmawards nominate it for video of the year.”
Other highlights for 2022: Lively attended the screening of Swift’s short film “All Too Well: The Short Film” in New York City and Lively is nominated for a second award, this time by the Country Music Association, for directing Swift’s music video. Swift and Lively also hung out while Lively was pregnant with her fourth child.
2023: Dinner and Chiefs game
Lively and Swift had a girls’ night out with other friends in April 2023 following Swift’s reported split from actor Joe Alwyn.
The two friends then grabbed dinner together in New York in September 2023, too, according to People.
One of the most buzzworthy moments of their friendship so far was when they attended the Chiefs-Jets game on Oct. 1, 2023. Videos posted online show them chatting and Swift making a muscle. They were also seen celebrating Chiefs touchdowns together.
During the game, the “Midnights” singer and “Gossip Girl” actor took a photo with Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, as well.
The night before the game, they dined at Emilio’s Ballato in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. They were joined by several of Swift’s friends, including Sophie Turner and Brittany Mahomes.
2024: Swift shows more love to Lively’s daughters
While performing in Madrid on May 29 to a sold-out crowd that included Lively and her three children (James, Betty and Inez), Swift once again called out their names before performing her song “Betty” from the “Folklore” album.
In videos shared on TikTok in May 2024, Swift is seen strumming her guitar onstage before speaking about her album “Folklore.”
“I have to say that on ‘Folklore,’ some of my favorite characters are named James, Inez and Betty!” she says in a clip before giggling.
In July 2024, Swift posted a cheeky message to her Instagram story promoting “Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, and referred to herself as a godmother to the couple’s kids.
“Shout out to Wade Wilson, aka my godkids’ sperm donor!” she wrote, referring to the real name of Reynolds’ Deadpool character.
As for Lively, she spoke in an Aug. 6 interview on TODAY with Sheinelle Jones about how she finds Swift “deeply inspiring.”
“Taylor Swift did post that she’s the godmom. And people just love it because they love you guys,” Sheinelle said.
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Lively replied.
“What is it about Taylor that makes her so special?” Sheinelle asked.
“To speak of women of multitudes and women who know how to be both strong and vulnerable, a woman who knows how to step into herself and into her story and show others what that looks like, and be an example of that and share yourself with people — I mean, that’s deeply inspiring,” the actor said.
“To see somebody doing that in their real life, it’s incredible. So I understand why she means so much to so many people. She means that much to me, as a fan, and then separately as a friend.”
2024: Swift’s song is featured in a trailer for ‘It Ends With Us’
The official trailer for “It Ends With Us,“ starring Lively, arrived in May 2024. The trailer was set to Swift’s song “My Tears Ricochet” from her 2020 album “Folklore.” Speaking about the significance of using the haunting track to promote the film, Lively said at Book Bonanza 2024 that the lyrics and sound connected to the themes in the movie, which is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel of the same name.
“Colleen is able to tell something that’s deeply personal and intimate but is able to resonate with so many people, and Taylor (Swift) is such an incredible writer,” Lively praised. “She writes from such personal experiences and vulnerabilities…I think that them together made a lot of sense.”
She further discussed pairing “My Tears Ricochet” with the film during an interview with “Extra” in August 2024.
When asked how the collaboration came about, Lively called Swift “the most successful singer of all time” and said that using her song wasn’t considered at first due to budget restrictions. “But it worked so well in the trailer that I was like, ‘We’ve got to put this in the movie,'” the actor recalled.
She continued, “It was a moment that was very important to me for (my character’s) journey because there’s something that happens in her life that sort of changes her perspective about what her future’s going to be. And as she’s considering what her future’s going to be having that song over score that time in her life was critical.”
2025: Swift mentioned in Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively involving ‘It Ends With Us’
On Jan. 16, Lively’s “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni filed a lawsuit against her, accusing the actor, husband Ryan Reynolds, Lively’s PR person Leslie Sloane and Sloane’s business of defamation and other contractual claims. His suit followed a sexual harassment complaint and lawsuit Lively filed against Baldoni in December 2024 involving his alleged misconduct during the film’s production.
Baldoni’s 179-page complaint, which was filed in a U.S. district court in New York, mentions a meeting at Lively and Reynold’s penthouse regarding a rooftop scene in the movie.
“Hours later, as the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script,” the complaint alleges.
In one of the text messages included in the complaint, Baldoni refers to the aforementioned friend as “Taylor,” but the name is redacted in other messages. However, Baldoni’s team has confirmed that he was referencing Swift.
The singer has not commented on either lawsuit.