It’s hard to imagine that Taylor Swift texted Ivanka Trump to color-coordinate their Super Bowl LIX outfits so that both would show up to Sunday’s game in white.
But for whatever reason, white was the color of choice for many prominent women at the game, notably Swift and the daughter of Donald Trump. He’s the man that the pop mega-star would prefer not to be president of the United States, as she prominently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. But the newly inaugurated president, who responded to Swift’s endorsement of Harris by declaring in September, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” also was in attendance in New Orleans’ Caesar’s Superdome to watch the big showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Meanwhile, Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Brittany Mahomes, Swift’s friend and the wife of Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes, also wore white to the game, as did Gayle Benson, the New Orleans Saints owner who was the Trump family’s host Sunday.
But as expected, Swift’s embattled friend Blake Lively was not seen in Swift’s VIP box, as the singer cheered on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, as he battled to help Mahomes and the Chiefs defend their Super Bowl title. Swift, dressed in an oversized cream blazer and matching knee-high boots, also was seen strolling into the stadium earlier with Ice Spice, her guest at last year’s Super Bowl, and singer Este Haim, People at the Daily Mail reported. Ice Spice also was dressed in white, though she seemed to be sporting a bright red bra underneath, her nod to the Chiefs.
Both TMZ and the Daily Mail reported this week that Lively wouldn’t be among Swift’s guests in her VIP suite. with TMZ reporting that their friendship has been “badly damaged” by the actor dragging the pop mega-star into her sordid legal battle with Justin Baldoni, her director and co-star for the film “It Ends With Us.”
Lively was Swift’s most prominent celebrity guest at the 2024 Super Bowl, when the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. The two women, close friends for at least a decade, could be seen hugging each other and screaming triumphantly during suspenseful moments in the game.
But TMZ has reported that the friendship has suffered a severe fracture in the wake of the Baldoni legal drama, which began when Lively went to the New York Times in December, then filed a lawsuit, accusing the actor and director of sexually harassing her during production of the 2024 domestic violence drama. Lively also accused Baldoni and his co-producer and publicists of orchestrating a smear campaign against her during the “It Ends With Us” press tour.
But Baldoni has hit back with a defamation and extortion lawsuit of his own, denying that he sexually harassed Lively and accusing her and Ryan Reynolds of wresting control of the movie from him and then going on their own P.R. campaign to damage his reputation.
TMZ and the Daily Mail have reported that Swift is distancing herself from Lively and feels that the actor used her in her effort take take control of the movie from the director. The outlets reported that Swift is not happy that she’s been identified in Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit as Lively’s “mega-celebrity” friend who made the director feel intimidated.
Baldoni specifically alleged that Lively used her friendship with Swift to put pressure on him to comply with Lively’s re-write of a crucial scene in the drama, in which Lively and Baldoni play lovers. Baldoni’s legal offensive also reveals what’s become a sore point for Swift, according to the Daily Mail and TMZ. It’s a lengthy text exchange between him and Lively in which Lively likened herself to “Khaleesi,” the iconic “Game of Thrones” character Daenerys Targaryen, and referred to Reynolds and Swift as her two “dragons.”
Being used as an “intimidation tactic” in Lively’s conflict with Baldoni isn’t sitting well with Swift, a source told the Daily Mail.