Inside Taylor Swift’s longtime friendship with Blake Lively

Taylor Swift and Blake Lively were friendship goals at the Kansas City Chiefs game against the New York Jets.

The longtime friends were spotted enjoying the NFL game from the box seats at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday October 1. Swift, who is rumoured to be dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, brought many of her A-list friends to watch the Chiefs beat the Jets 23-20, including Sophie Turner, Hugh Jackman, and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.

Swift and Lively were both dressed in black as they enthusiastically cheered on Kelce’s team. In one moment, the “Anti-Hero” singer appeared to make a flirty comment about her rumoured boyfriend to Lively, as she leaned into the Gossip Girl alum and said: “Look at him.”

Another video showed the close friends giggling to each other and touching their foreheads together.

This is not the first time Swift and Lively have showcased their close friendship. In fact, the female celebs have been known to support each other over the years, from sharing photos together on social media to Swift featuring Lively and Reynolds’ children in her music.

Here’s a timeline of Swift and Lively’s friendship.

The singer and actor first connected in 2015, after fans surprisingly believed Lively was throwing shade at Swift on social media. The A Simple Favour star sparked speculation that she was poking fun at Swift’s infamous “Bad Blood” girl squad when she posted an Instagram photo from a L’Oréal campaign. The campaign featured many famous faces, including Lively, Julianne Moore, Naomi Watts, and singer John Legend.

“Soooo, turns out this WASN’T a video shoot for John Legend’s cover of Bad Blood,” Lively wrote on Instagram at the time. “@lorealparisofficial blew it out for this one. My #pinkobsession is exposed now. Okay your turn. I won’t tell! #AlsoTurnsOutJohnLegendIsntCoveringBadBlood Time to start a petition!”

After fans believed Lively was taking aim at Swift, she quickly cleared up confusion by posting another photo of her and Reynolds’ family backstage with Swift during the singer’s 1989 tour. “Umm whoever thought I was throwin’ shade clearly doesn’t know I have a ‘Taylor Swift Please Be My Wife Voo Doo Doll,’” she wrote, alongside the hashtag #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. Okay, FIIINE we can hyphenate our last names. Xo Blake Swift-Lively 4eva.”

Later that year, Swift and Lively finally met up in Australia. The “Shake It Off” singer shared a photo of the two, in which they could be seen holding a koala - marking the first time the soon-to-be best friends posted a photo together.

The following year, Lively and Reynolds - who tied the knot in 2012 - were in attendance at Swift’s famed Fourth of July party. The annual event is usually a celebrity-filled fest held at Swift’s beachside home in Rhode Island. In 2016, a pregnant Lively and her husband posed for a couple photo with Swift and her then-boyfriend, actor Tom Hiddleston.

In honour of Swift’s 27th birthday in December 2016, Lively marked the occasion by posting a belated birthday tribute on Instagram. “People Who I Not Only Really Love, But Also Really LIKE, That Were Born Yesterday: Part one of two. @taylorswift you know how I feel,” she captioned a selfie of the pair.

Nearly two years after they met in Australia, Swift decided to feature Lively and Reynolds’ eldest daughter, James, on her 2017 album, Reputation. At the opening of the track “Gorgeous”, the then-two-year-old can be heard saying the word “gorgeous” before Swift begins singing.

In 2018, the proud parents showed their excited reaction to hearing James’ voice blasted over the speakers at Swift’s Reputation Tour concert at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. The song marked the first in a longstanding tradition of Swift featuring Lively’s children in her music.

In July 2020, the couple’s children were name-dropped in Swift’s eighth studio album, titled Folklore. The names of Lively and Reynolds’ daughters - James, now eight, Inez, seven, and Betty, three - were all featured in the song “Betty”, in which Swift sings about a teenage love triangle.

However, their youngest daughter’s name wasn’t publicly known at the time the song was released. The couple also welcomed a fourth child in February 2023, whose name has also not been revealed.

Speaking to Jess Cagle during a SiriusXM Town Hall event, the Free Guy actor revealed that he and his wife were flattered when Swift chose to use their daughters’ names in her song because they trust the singer “implicitly”.

“The names are the names of our kids, but you know, we trust her implicitly and she’s very sensitive to any of that stuff. And obviously the song has nothing to do with our kids other than our kids’ names,” Reynolds said back in 2021. “We thought it was pretty, pretty damn amazing. We still do. You know, I still walk down the street and shake my head thinking: ‘I can’t believe that happened.’”

During a recent tour stop in Philadelphia as part of her ongoing Eras Tour, Swift introduced the song “Betty” by giving a shoutout to Lively and Reynolds’ three daughters. “I named the characters after real people in my life who I love more than anything, and their names are James, Inez and Betty,” Swift said back in May, per USAToday.

She also appeared to say “hi” to James and Inez - who were present at the show - while on stage, and was seen holding hands with James as they exited the stadium.

When Swift won the Grammy for Album of the Year in March 2021, she revealed that Lively’s family are some of the first people to listen to her unreleased songs. “I want to thank James, Inez and Betty and their parents who are the second and third people that I play every new song that I write," she said in her speech, while accepting the Grammy for Folklore.

Following the re-release of Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021, Lively and Reynolds were seen supporting Swift’s musical guest gig at Saturday Night Live. That same month, it was revealed that the Age of Adaline star had directed the music video for Swift’s vault track, “I Bet You Think About Me”, marking Lively’s directorial debut.

What’s more, the Academy of Country Music Awards nominated the Lively-directed music video for video of the year in 2022. Swift celebrated the news on Instagram, writing on her Story: “AHHHHHHH CONGRATS @blakelively, MILES AND @keleighteller!!!! BIG GROUP HUG! I loved making this video and it’s so cool to see the @acmawards nominate it for video of the year.”

When Lively announced she was pregnant for the fourth time at the 10th Annual Forbes Power Women’s Summit in September 2022, that same month she shared several photos on Instagram to show off her growing baby bump. However, it seemed that Swift had known for a long time that her close friend was pregnant.

In the Instagram carousel, the “Bejewelled” singer was pictured hugging Lively by the pool. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants star was seen in a pale pink bikini, while Swift was dressed in striped shorts, a tank top, and black Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Just seven months later, it was revealed that Swift had broken up with her long-term boyfriend, British actor Joe Alwyn, after six years of dating. As girlfriends often do, Lively stepped out with newly-single Swift for a dinner in New York City with fellow friends Gigi Hadid and the Haim sisters.

Swift was also seen grabbing dinner with Reynolds and Lively the night before, and it was there that the Deadpool actor reportedly unfollowed Alwyn on Instagram, after fans noticed he was no longer following the Conversations with Friends star.

Prior to their joint appearance at the Kansas City Chiefs game on 1 October, Swift and Lively dined together at Emilio’s Ballato in New York City. The night before the big game, the two were joined by several of Swift’s friends, including Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.