Eagle-eyed Hollywood critics and fans of Taylor Swift and Blake Lively are split over whether the superstar duo’s friendship is on the rocks or potentially in recovery.

Sleuth fans of Swift have suggested that she has wiped evidence of her friendship with Lively from her Instagram, due to a rumoured feud stemming from Swift’s reluctant involvement in Lively’s sexual harassment case against Baldoni from their time working together on movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel, It Ends With Us. 

Lively also accused Baldoni of engaging in a 2024 smear campaign against her, while Baldoni sued The New York Times for running a report on Lively’s lawsuit, as well as a defamation and extortion civil lawsuit against Lively. Both lawsuits were dismissed by a federal judge this week.

Back in January, Taylor was named in a range of legal documents, which included screenshots of alleged texts from Blake describing herself as ‘Khaleesi’ (a character from TV series Game of Thrones) and Swift as one of her ‘dragons.’ ‘My dragons also protect those I fight for,’ Lively wrote. ‘So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.’

However, others have argued that Swift wiped all of her Instagram posts and social media headers back in 2017, as part of a promotional campaign for the release of her sixth studio album Reputation. So any lack of pics with herself and Lively on Instagram is likely to be due to that promo move, instead of any alleged feuding. 

Posts in question include a ‘happy birthday’ grid post to Lively accompanied by an image of both Swift and Lively petting a koala. Swift had posted: ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE! You’re a wonderful friend, to humans and koalas alike. I absolutely love you 😘😘😘.’

Another missing post sees Swift and Lively enjoying themselves at a theme park in Australia, before Swift’s performance in Adelaide, with the caption: ‘Yesterday was such an amazing day off– roller coasters, kangaroos and LOLs with @blakelively’.

Lively remains on Swift’s grid in group pictures with her husband Ryan Reynolds and the singer’s producer Jack Antonoff.

Other speculation has suggested that Lively’s latest legal move is an attempt to smooth things over with Swift, as she subpoenaed Scooter Braun as part of the case earlier this week. Braun is a friend of Baldoni’s, but also had a very public fall out with Swift when he bought the rights to her first six studio albums while he was head of her record label Big Machine Records. She responded by re-recording five of the six albums and labelling each of them ‘(Taylor’s Version)’. Swift then recently bought back the rights to her first six albums, six years later.

Therefore, fans have interpreted the latest legal move as an attempt to extend an olive branch to Swift, due to her existing Bad Blood with Braun. Lively’s countersuit win, meanwhile, has been criticised by Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman as a ‘false victory tour.’

He added in an interview with TMZ that while he and Baldoni’s team ‘weren’t pleased that the judge dismissed the defamation claim,’ it wasn’t ‘what the case is about.’

‘We got started because Blake Lively filed a CRD complaint and then walked over and filed a lawsuit,’ he said, ‘which accused some very good people of a smear campaign and accused a terrific young man of sexual harassment – both of the which were completely untrue.’

‘And that’s where the case got started’ and ‘where the case stands today.’

‘What we wanted our win is to show there was no smear campaign, and there’s no sexual harassment,’ Freedman explained. ‘And she hasn’t proved a thing – as a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite.’

‘Look at the facts, look at what’s been shown, look at the receipts, look at the video,’ he said.

‘The truth is, you know, going to be shown through depositions, which is what’s going to be next, I’ve noticed her deposition – it’s set in June – we’re going to see if she’s going to appear at that deposition or not,’ Freedman said. ‘And we’re gonna proceed forward with the case, and we’re gonna show that there was no sexual harassment, and we’re gonna show that there was no smear campaign.’

Shortly after Baldoni’s case was dismissed, Lively released a statement on Instagram.

‘Last week, I stood proudly alongside 19 organisations united in defending women’s rights to speak up for their safety,’ she said. ‘Like so many others, I’ve felt the pain of a retaliatory lawsuit, including the manufactured shame that tries to break us.

‘While the suit against me was defeated, so many don’t have the resources to fight back.’

She described feeling ‘more resolved than ever to continue to stand for every woman’s right to have a voice in protecting themselves, including their safety, their integrity, their dignity and their story.

‘With love and gratitude for the many who stood by me, many of you I know,’ Lively wrote. ‘Many of you I don’t. But I will never stop appreciating or advocating for you.’