Private text messages between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift were thrust into the public record this week, offering a rare, unguarded look at the slow strain on one of Hollywood’s most closely watched friendships.

The messages were included in legal filings unsealed ahead of a summary judgment hearing in Lively’s ongoing lawsuit against Justin Baldoni, a case that has quietly reshaped her personal and professional life. While the texts themselves were anonymized, accompanying documents described the exchange as being between Lively and Swift.

In one message, Lively appeared painfully self-aware, apologizing for what she described as months of emotional tunnel vision. She wrote that she felt like “a bad friend,” admitting she had spent too long talking only about her own struggles and praising Swift for being there anyway. Lively said she was encouraged by her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to ask directly if something was wrong rather than let the distance linger.

Swift’s response, sent more than an hour later, was gentle but direct. She acknowledged feeling worn down and described sensing a shift in how Lively spoke to her—less personal, more formal. At one point, Swift compared Lively’s recent messages to “a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees,” saying she missed the friend who spoke plainly, darkly, and like herself. “It’s me,” Swift wrote, urging Lively not to over-explain and simply come back.

Lively replied hours later with startling candor, saying she had become “digitally paranoid” and hadn’t realized how much she’d begun writing instead of talking. She described an identity crisis triggered by the lawsuit, saying Baldoni’s alleged actions left her questioning her instincts and her voice. The actress also revealed that what hurt most wasn’t the behavior of enemies, but the quiet disappearance of longtime friends she thought would stay.

The exchange unfolded just days before Swift wrapped the Eras Tour, with Lively ending on a note of affection, joking about Swift finally being free of suitcases, sinus infections, and battered knees.

The texts add context to reports that the friendship had stalled amid the legal chaos surrounding Lively’s case. Baldoni has denied Lively’s allegations of harassment and retaliation. His countersuit against Lively and Reynolds, which included references to Swift as one of Lively’s “dragons”—a nod to Game of Thrones—was later dismissed by a judge.

Swift was briefly pulled into the legal orbit when Baldoni’s lawyers attempted to subpoena her, prompting a forceful response from her team distancing her entirely from It Ends With Us. Her spokesperson emphasized that Swift’s only involvement was licensing a single song and accused Baldoni’s legal team of using her name for attention.

What remains, after the filings and the fallout, is something more human than scandal: two exhausted women trying to speak honestly, one sentence at a time, while the world reads along.