Taylor Swift has gotten out her Portofino orange glitter gel pen for her latest era, The Life of a Showgirl, and fans are already scouring the internet for clues about it. On Aug. 14, Swift made a long-awaited appearance on New Heights, the podcast co-hosted by her boyfriend of two years, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce. On the podcast, she announced her album, TLOAS, along with its tracklist — and fans are already convinced one song, “Ruin The Friendship,” is about Blake Lively. (Her Campus reached out to Swift’s team for comment on the rumor, but did not hear back at the time of publication.)
With Swift revealing some of the gems and the glamour of The Life of a Showgirl on the podcast, it looks like the album is shaping up to be a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into being a performer of her caliber. Ironically, a major price of being a mega-celebrity includes intense speculation about those in your inner circle — and Swift and Lively’s friendship is currently taking center stage, largely because the best friends of nearly a decade haven’t been spotted together since October of 2024. So, what happened? And are Swift and Lively still friends? Here’s the scoop.
What happened between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift?
Notably, Lively has been involved in a lawsuit and countersuit with her It Ends with Us co-star Justin Baldoni over their disputes regarding the film. During their public feud, an alleged text from Lively to Baldoni (in which she referred to herself as “Khaleesi” and Swift as one of her “dragons”) was leaked. Because of this, some fans believe that Lively’s possible attempt at involving Swift in her drama may have led to a falling out between the two. Her Campus reached out to both Swift and Lively’s team for comment on the text messages and reported falling out, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
Is “Ruin The Friendship” about Blake Lively?
Still, the world is hungry for confirmation on whether the rumors of the friendship fallout are true. Of course, upon seeing the track reveal of the song “Ruin The Friendship,” it was an easy jumping-off point to speculate its connection to Lively. Coincidentally (or not), the producers on TLOAS, Max Martin and Shellback, were also the co-writers for the song “Bad Blood,” which is rumored to be about a separate falling out between Swift and Katy Perry. It wouldn’t be entirely abnormal for their collaborative relationship to create another song about another tense relationship in Swift’s life — though no one yet knows for sure what the song is actually about.
Either way, fans are completely invested, and they want to know exactly what is going on.
The irony is not lost on fans that the world is obsessed with the dramatics and delicate intricacies of the album, which is exactly the statement TLOAS seems to be trying to make. As much as fans would love to know what’s happening in Swift’s personal life, it appears the most information they will be getting as of right now is from whatever Swift decides to reveal to them.
For example, Swift let podcast viewers know that TLOAS had been recorded in Sweden during the European leg of the tour, saying, “I’d have three days off, I’d fly to Sweden, go back to the tour, and was actually working on this.” Doing the calendar math, Swift was already recording the songs in the spring and summer of 2024 — that means the conception for the lyrics and themes of the album had to have already been in the works before any sign of It Ends With Us tension reached the public (though possibly not before drama had begun unfolding behind the scenes).
So, while it’s possible that Lively did “Ruin The Friendship” between Swift and herself, it’s less likely that any of the songs on the latest album are about the drama, based on the timeline alone. Either way, I’m just hoping a single is going to drop before the release date on Oct. 3 — I’m amped to wear orange and glitter, get out my dictionary, and get ready to dance!