As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding celebrations get underway in New York, one famous couple appears to be noticeably absent.
Despite once being among Swift’s closest friends, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were nowhere to be seen as A-list guests descended on Manhattan for what is shaping up to be one of the biggest celebrity weddings in years.
Instead, the Hollywood couple spent the day around 300 miles away in Lake Placid in upstate New York, cheering on their daughter, Betty, at an equestrian competition.
Photos obtained by TMZ show Lively and Reynolds proudly watching from the sidelines as Betty competed at a local horse show, where she reportedly secured second place.
While their eldest daughter was collecting rosettes, Swift was reportedly surrounded by family and celebrity friends in New York ahead of her lavish wedding to NFL star Kelce.
Their absence is likely to fuel further speculation that Swift’s once-close friendship with Lively has yet to recover following the actress’s high-profile legal battle with It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
Swift found herself unexpectedly dragged into the dispute earlier this year after Baldoni’s legal team subpoenaed the singer as part of the case, before later withdrawing the request.
Although Swift was never accused of wrongdoing, her representatives stressed she had no involvement in the film’s production, casting or editing, arguing there was no reason for her to be pulled into the proceedings.
Court documents also brought private text messages between Lively and Baldoni into the public eye, including one exchange in which Lively described Swift and husband Ryan Reynolds as her ‘dragons’ – comparing herself to Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen.
The subpoena may have been dropped, but reports have continued to suggest the fallout damaged the pair’s friendship.
Multiple sources have claimed Swift was upset at being drawn into the legal battle, with insiders telling People earlier this year that the friendship had effectively ‘halted’ as the singer sought to distance herself from the escalating dispute.
Another source suggested the pair were simply ‘taking some space’, while emphasising they were not necessarily permanently estranged.
Rumours intensified further after reports claimed Lively had not been invited to Swift and Kelce’s wedding celebrations.
Neither Swift nor Lively has publicly commented on the speculation.
Meanwhile, Swift appears to have spent recent weeks reconnecting with other friends, including model Karlie Kloss, whose own friendship with the singer famously cooled several years ago before reports suggested the pair had recently grown close again.
Lively and Reynolds, meanwhile, seemed happy to swap one of the year’s biggest celebrity parties for a quieter family day out.
The couple were photographed smiling and applauding as Betty competed, with Reynolds keeping a low profile in casual clothes while cheering on his daughter.
The outing comes after the resolution of Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle in May, a feud that had been ongoing since late 2024, when Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni of misconduct on set and alleging a coordinated effort to damage her reputation.
Baldoni denied the claims and launched a countersuit of his own, drawing in his production company Wayfarer Studios as the dispute escalated into one of Hollywood’s most closely watched legal sagas.
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The production of the pair’s 2024 adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel came under the spotlight when tensions first emerged between the two co-stars during the film’s publicity tour.
The pair reached a shock last-minute settlement just weeks before they were set to go to trial.
In a joint statement, lawyers for both sides said they hoped the resolution would allow everyone involved to ‘move forward constructively and in peace’, while emphasising a shared commitment to respectful and safe working environments.
Despite that resolution, it appears one of Taylor Swift’s longest-running celebrity friendships remains on the outside looking in as wedding celebrations begin.