There was a time when Taylor Swift and Blake Lively were the best of friends. Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds were the first people to hear Swift’s new music, and the singer was the godmother to the couple’s four children — she even name-dropped Inez, James and Betty in her song “Betty.” However, things have cooled significantly between the two since Swift got roped into Lively’s legal drama with Justin Baldoni. If we needed more proof that these two are on the outs, Swift’s alleged silence on Lively’s birthday should do the trick.
Blake Lively celebrated her 39th birthday on August 25, with Ryan Reynolds fawning over “the very best human I know” in a sweet Instagram tribute. However, sources tell Naughty But Nice’s Rob Shuter that no well-wishes came from the Life of a Showgirl artist, allegedly forcing Lively to accept that her and Taylor Swift’s friendship is over. The insider said:
Blake was absolutely hoping Taylor would reach out. A text. Flowers. Even two words: ‘Happy birthday.’ Nothing came. That silence said everything.
It’s a little hard for me to believe that Blake Lively would still be hoping she and Taylor Swift could reconcile — especially after the Gossip Girl star and Ryan Reynolds weren’t invited to Swift and Travis Kelce’s July wedding (despite the fact that Madison Square Garden was more than capable of accommodating as many guests as “TNT” wanted).
Perhaps once Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni settled their legal issues, she thought her friendship with Taylor Swift could begin to heal. That’s what one source reports, saying:
Blake kept telling herself there was a path back. She thought time would cool everything down and Taylor would eventually remember how much they loved each other. The birthday changed that.
While Taylor Swift wanted no part of Blake Lively’s legal drama — with texts between the two showing the tension in their friendship — the breaking point may have come when Lively allegedly threatened to release private texts between them if Swift didn’t issue a public show of support. Taylor’s father, Scott Swift, then reportedly leaked those threats to Justin Baldoni’s team in return for the subpoena against Taylor being dropped.
We can’t be sure if the end of Taylor Swift and Blake Lively’s friendship was all due to the It Ends with Us sexual harassment case — there are reports that Travis Kelce didn’t like Ryan Reynolds long before that — but either way, this birthday snub is, according to the insider, the thing that got the message across. They said:
Taylor has moved on. Blake finally understands she cannot force Taylor back into her life. You can ignore a lot of signs. It’s harder to ignore your birthday.
Whether the old friends will reconnect somewhere down the road remains to be seen, but Taylor Swift allegedly not sending any birthday wishes to Blake Lively for the last year of her 30s seems like a pretty clear indicator of where they stand now.
