Though Taylor Swift’s squad is constantly evolving, dropping and adding members as the pop star debuts new eras, one friend has been a card-carrying member for a decade: Blake Lively, the actress currently embroiled in a legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni.
Swift and Lively have been friends ever since Lively reached out to Swift on Instagram in 2015. But Swift’s unwitting involvement in the Lively-Baldoni case has reportedly threatened their friendship — Swift “was really hurt” by the ordeal, a source told People last month. Can these two patch things up in time for Swift’s annual best-friends holiday (the Fourth of July)? Let’s revisit their history to determine their future.
The “Taylor Swift Please Be My Wife” voodoo doll
Think back to 2015: Swift’s “squad” was a dominating force in pop culture, with Swift tapping several of her famous female friends to appear in her “Bad Blood” music video. Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne, and Karlie Kloss were all there. Not Lively, though — she was not yet associated with the pop star, which is why Swift fans were skeptical when Lively posted an Instagram referencing the video.
Lively, then a L’Oréal shampoo ambassador, posted a photo from a commercial shoot featuring herself, John Legend, and a few other actresses with the caption, “….sooo, turns out this WASN’T a video shoot for John Legend’s cover of Bad Blood.”
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Fans assumed Lively was making fun of Swift, so she posted another Instagram of her husband Ryan Reynolds’s extended family meeting Swift backstage at a show with the caption, “Umm whoever thought I was throwin’ shade clearly doesn’t know I have a ‘Taylor Swift Please Be My Wife’ Voo Doo Doll #obsessed. Look how rad she is here making my niece Heather feel like a rock star. Love my Canadian family almost as much as I love Taylor Lively. I mean Swift. Ok, FIIINE we can hyphenate our last names. Xo Blake Swift-Lively 4eva.”
(Both posts have tragically since been deleted.)
Apparently, Swift was taken in by Lively’s comedic stylings, and the two were spotted hanging out at a theme park in Australia six weeks later, while Swift was on the 1989 tour. The Swift-Lively friendship was born.
The Fourth of July photo seen ’round the world
By 2016, Lively and Swift were officially BFFs, which meant that Lively and Reynolds secured an invitation to Swift’s annual Fourth of July party at her Rhode Island estate. The holiday came at the peak of Swift’s relationship with Tom Hiddleston — remember the “I
