America’s sweetheart received quite a different reaction than she’s used to while attending the weekend’s highly anticipated Super Bowl in Caesars Superdome, New Orleans.
Like last year, Taylor Swift attended the game in a private box with a gaggle of famous pals, but the centre of her attention was her boyfriend, Travis Kelce. The 35-year-old pop star has been dating the Kansas City tight end since September 2023 and was there in the stands supporting him as his team were defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles 40 points to 22.
However, when the Shake It Off singer was shown on the big screen during the game, she was shocked to be on the receiving end of a chorus of boos from the crowd. Although she gave some serious side-eye and could be seen trying to laugh it off, a lip reader has now identified what she said when she turned rapper pal Ice Spice, who also accompanied her to last year’s Super Bowl.
NJ Hickling told DailyMail.com that the superstar said, 'Aww, what? What's going on?'
So why all the hate for Taylor? Well, while of course some of the boos would have been from the large contingent of Eagles fans, there has been much speculation that Tay-Tay’s reputation has taken a serious hit these past few weeks thanks to one of her A-list friendships.
Along with Ice Spice, Swift was joined at the game by stylist Ashley Avignone, the Haim sisters – Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim – and former American football player Ross Travis. However, one famous pal who was noticeably missing was 37-year-old Blake Lively, who was right beside Taylor at last year’s game between the Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
This follows weeks of speculation over whether she and husband Ryan Reynolds would be attending the game by Taylor’s side given their recent ugly legal battle against Justin Baldoni – which Taylor has been unwittingly dragged into.
Now, it seems that Taylor is doing her level best to distance herself from the noise and didn’t want to pull focus from 35-year-old Travis on the Super Bowl weekend – especially given her fears that his fans will take her to task now that he’s been defeated.
An insider tells Closer, 'Taylor didn’t want this to be a distraction for Travis ahead of the Super Bowl and is now worried that superstitious football fans will blame her for his team’s loss.'
Based on the crowd’s reaction, it seems that despite Blake’s absence fans cannot separate Taylor from the controversial case, especially since the A-list actress has pulled the singer directly into the drama.
According to insiders, the singer has been watching in shock as her name has been repeatedly mentioned in legal documents – with Blake’s camp alleging that Justin’s team were planning to exploit her friendship with the singer, and Justin’s camp releasing proof that Blake referred to her superstar friend as her Game of Thrones-style 'dragon' who loyally and vehemently protected her (in what some say was a thinly-veiled threat against Justin and an attempt to leverage power against him). Now, as the drama continues, we’re told Taylor is doing all she can to distance herself from the narrative.
'Taylor is seriously reconsidering her friendship with Blake, and is actively in damage control right now,' says an insider close to the 35-year-old who, having finally completed her groundbreaking Eras tour, has been doing her best to lay low.
'The whole drama with Justin has spiralled out of control, and it seems as if Blake has implicated Taylor and kind of thrown her under the bus a bit. Taylor has some of the best people in the business around her and they can all see how negative the fight is affecting the public’s opinion of Blake and her husband Ryan Reynolds, and she wants no part of that. She’s America’s sweetheart and wants to stay that way.'
Taylor and Blake’s friendship dates back to 2015, when they both started waxing lyrical about each other. Since then, they’ve enjoyed holidays and evenings out, contributed to each other’s work (among many collaborations, Blake directed Taylor’s 2021 music video for I Bet You Think About Me) and have fully enmeshed themselves in each other’s lives. Blake often accompanies Taylor to Travis’ football games, while Taylor has been named godparent to Blake and Ryan’s four daughters.
However, their longstanding alliance has now been thrown into serious doubt amid Blake’s legal battle against her former It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin. In December, Blake filed a legal complaint, and then a lawsuit against Justin, his publicist and his production company, accusing him of sexual harassment on set and of 'retaliating against her' for reporting said misdemeanours. She also alleged he’d orchestrated a PR campaign to 'destroy' her reputation. However, Justin fired back, filing a federal lawsuit against Blake, Ryan and her publicist, Leslie Sloane. In the latter, he said that his former co-star had 'tormented' him and his family, falsely accused him of sexual harassment and used him as a 'scapegoat' to quieten the negative press surrounding her.
The ensuing battle has gotten uglier by the day – with both sides using texts, video footage and audio to try to corroborate their cases. But it’s Justin who’s seemingly been most transparent – producing pages and pages of screenshotted text messages he shared with Blake and Ryan, casting into doubt some of her earlier complaints that he 'fat-shamed' her, overstepped his boundaries behind the scenes, and refused to let her work with an intimacy coordinator. Meanwhile, Justin’s most damning move came last week, when he and his team released a website – named thelawsuitinfo.com – dedicated to supporting his case with a timeline of events, plus every single text message and email he and Blake ever exchanged. In a recent text reveal, we see Blake suggestively boast to Justin about her writing style: 'If you knew me (in person) longer you’d have a sense of how flirty and yummy the ball busting will play. It’s my love language. Spicy and playfully bold, never with teeth…'
Meanwhile, throughout this battle, Taylor has somehow been unknowingly implicated. Justin alleges that, during one tense meeting at Blake and Ryan’s New York penthouse, Taylor arrived on the scene. Insiders have since said that Taylor had no idea what she was walking into, and simply thought she was attending a social arrangement. Since then, damning texts have been revealed, in which Blake complained to Justin that he hadn’t taken some of her script re-writes seriously. In the texts, she said that Ryan and Taylor had both been disappointed by Justin’s ambivalence towards her work.
'When they [Ryan and Taylor] signed off on the pages, I felt good to send them to you,' she wrote. 'They asked what you thought specifically after. They checked in so many times. I told them that you laughed a bunch and said it's probably a blend, but you appreciate my passion so much. Which of course didn't feel great for me. Or them. To have my passion be praised instead of any specific contribution.'
She then added, in what many deem to be a thinly veiled threat against Justin: 'If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you'll appreciate that I'm Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really, we all benefit from those monsters of mine you will too, I can promise you.'
By all accounts, it’s clear that the 'dragons' she’s referring to are Ryan and Taylor. But while Ryan is naturally standing by his wife, our insider says that Taylor has been totally blindsided, revealing, 'She claims she had no idea about Blake calling her and Ryan her dragons until she read it in the press like everyone else. She is now trying to keep her distance from Blake and Ryan until things die down, but this case isn't going to go away anytime soon unless a settlement can be reached – and Justin isn't looking to settle.'
As things stand, the actual court case isn’t due to kick off until next year – but, in last week’s hearing, the judge suggested he may have to move the date up to avoid jurors being prejudiced amid the media storm.
As for Blake and Taylor’s previous very public friendship, it all hinges on how long it takes for the noise to die down – and whether Justin and Blake will reach a settlement before even more dirty laundry is publicly aired. But whether Blake will be getting any more invites to football games remains to be seen.