As Taylor Swift faces the prospect of having her deeply personal texts with Blake Lively exposed in court – one very protective figure is stepping in to shield her privacy.
This man was even accused of punching an ‘aggressive’ photographer in the face and giving him the finger during Taylor’s Eras tour Down Under.
It’s singer’s father, Scott Swift, who is now gearing up to push back against a judge’s recent decision allowing Justin Baldoni access to the messages as part of his ongoing legal battle with Lively, Daily Mail has learned.
‘This is a blow but I doubt Scott Swift will take it lying down,’ a source in Nashville who’s known Taylor and her parents for two decades said.
‘If there’s a loophole or something he can do to fight this he’ll figure it out.’
Lively’s lawyers had applied for a protective order covering her communications with Swift in the blockbuster legal battle with Baldoni, but that move was unceremoniously denied by a New York judge on Wednesday.
Swift’s 73-year-old financial advisor dad, most recently pictured on a Segway following his daughter backstage at a concert in a Taylor Nation Father’s Day post, is often portrayed as goofy ‘Papa Swift’ but he has a tough, fiercely protective side that’s a big reason his daughter has succeeded on such a global scale, the source said.
Scott has been a fixture by his daughter’s side throughout her sold-out Eras tour last year.
He was even accused of punching an ‘aggressive’ photographer in the face and giving him the finger in Sydney, Australia during Taylor’s Eras tour Down Under in December 2024 though no charges were filed against him.
‘Travis is very much in the same vein,’ the Nashville source said. ‘They’re both extroverts and they come off as good guys. But they’re both very old school and protective as well and they keep their eyes on the prize, which in this case is Taylor.’
‘People call him Papa Swift with affection and he’s always had that friendly, old-school energy,’ said another country music insider who has observed the family for decades.
‘But behind the warmth is a laser-focused strategist. He was all dad on the surface, but there’s a Wall Street brain ticking underneath.’
‘Taylor’s voice and songwriting got her noticed, but Scott’s instincts really got her the empire.
‘He’s got a kind of golf-course charm, the kind of guy who remembers your kids’ names but Scott Swift is nobody’s fool.
‘He was reading contracts and sizing up people way before Taylor was a household name.’
Lively famously referred to megastar Swift as one of her ‘dragons’ in an exchange with Baldoni when she was allegedly trying to intimidate him into going along with some of her ideas for their 2024 film, It Ends With Us.
Baldoni’s team had to withdraw a subpoena targeting Swift directly but thanks to Judge Lewis J. Liman’s ruling this week, they’ll be allowed access to Lively’s communications with the singer about the movie.
Last month, the Daily Mail exclusively reported that Scott Swift had secretly struck a deal with Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, giving him inside intel, to get him to drop her subpoena of her as a witness in the case.
The drama began last December when Lively, 37, accused Baldoni, her It Ends with Us co-star and director, of sexual harassment and coordinating a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni, 41, hit back in January, with a $400million countersuit accusing Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, 48, of defamation. All parties have denied the allegations.
‘Scott Swift did not want his daughter to be dragged into this any further and he voluntarily gave up this information as part of a deal that would include Baldoni’s team withdrawing their subpoena for Taylor,’ the source explained.
Scott Swift’s recent move is consistent with the iron hand he’s used to steer Taylor’s career since she was a kid playing local gigs and karaoke bars around Wyomissing, Pennsylvania – and sources tell the Daily Mail he’ll probably do whatever it takes to continue to run interference for his daughter in the Lively-Baldoni legal mess.
Like Kelce, Scott Swift also played football – but the then 6’3′, 190-pound lineman never progressed past playing college ball in Hawaii and at the University of Delaware where he graduated in 1974.
Swift’s preferred game was finance and he established the Swift Group after joining Merrill Lynch in 1980.
His name and work phone number remain on the Swift Group website although the woman who answered the phone seemed flustered when Daily Mail called asking for Scott.
‘He’s not here right now,’ she said and then added, confusingly, ‘We don’t have anything to do with him’ before abruptly hanging up.
The Taylor Swift origin story includes tales of her traveling to Music Row in Nashville as a kid of 11, knocking on doors asking for a record deal while her mother, Andrea, and younger brother, Austin, waited in the car.
At 13 she got an artist development deal and at 14 became the youngest person ever signed as a songwriter on Music Row.
But a leaked five-page email from Scott Swift in 2005 to Taylor’s first manager, Dan Dymtrow, that surfaced a few years ago after Dymtrow sued Swift for millions in 2007, laid bare how much Scott hustled early on for his daughter – with little appreciation from his wife and Taylor.
‘Taylor’s theater group, which had never been invited to sing at Municipal Stadium in Reading for the Reading Phillies was asked to come out on Oldies Day,’ Scott wrote.
‘Who on the board of directors suggested Oldies Day? I did.’
‘Who had promoted his 11-year-old at every board meeting to the point where the guy who was supposed to sing the national anthem did not show, they came to Taylor and said, “Can you sing the national anthem?” I did.
‘Which led to the Harlem Wizards national anthem because the person in charge of it was in the stands. Who videotaped it? I did.
‘Who then made copies and used old contacts to send it to the 76ers, while being told he was silly. I did.
‘Who bought tickets for all of Taylor’s friends to support her when she sang in front of 23,000 people. I did.’
Scott Swift also grouses, somewhat good-naturedly, in the email to Dymtrow about how his wife Andrea, from whom he later split in 2012, felt he ‘talked too much and promoted Taylor too much’ and how he often got shut out of the fun aspects of his daughter’s career despite doing a lot of the dirty work to get her launched.
‘Who pays for absolutely everything?’ Swift wrote in the email ‘Who is the guy who gets goofed on for talking too much? Dad. Who filmed it all? Dad. Who gets to go to New York, New England and every cool appearance? Not Dad. Can’t fix hair… Who blew up 500 beach balls on the roof for Radio Disney? Dad. Who funds the whole process but does not come to the dance? Dad. Who has made enough money that if we take off across the country, we will be okay. Who hired staff ahead of time so we could move to Nashville? The idiot that lives with Andrea!!! Now I have to get back to work so I can pay for some event that I won’t even get to go to.’
Scott Swift, who has had cancer as has Taylor’s mom, also memorably referred in the email as to how he had his ‘prostate sucked out of my body by a robot on January 4th, was in diapers for 7 weeks and can’t get a hard-on.’
Dave Pomeroy, president of Nashville Musicians Association AFM Local 257 where Swift has been a member in good standing for 14 years, said Swift lucked out by having such a shrewd – but loving – father.
Unlike horror stage fathers like Michael Jackson’s dad Joe Jackson or Britney’s dad Jamie Spears, Pomeroy said Scott seemed to have Taylor’s best interests at heart from the very beginning.
‘I did a demo session with Taylor when she was only 13 years old and I remember thinking she seems really smart and so do her parents,’ Pomeroy told The Daily Mail.
‘They were really paying attention – but not in a pushy show biz way. Then things developed from there and she got her first record deal. Her career has really been a family effort.’
Pomeroy says Taylor ‘earned her career on her own merit’ but has nothing but praise for Scott Swift. In 2011, he reached out to Taylor’s camp because the Nashville Symphony wanted to give her their annual Harmony award.
Pomeroy said to his surprise, Scott Swift got right back to him and proposed meeting with him and the symphony management team.
‘Scott said they appreciated us wanting to give Taylor the award and then he said they wanted to give a $100,000 donation to the symphony and give our union credit for the donation.
‘It was completely unsolicited on our part. That’s typical of all the interactions I’ve had and seen on the part of Taylor’s family. It’s all been positive and straight up.’
An LA-based music industry executive who’s known the Swifts since 2012 said she doubts Taylor would have reached such heights of fame and success without her parents – especially Scott.
‘The family, especially Taylor, wants it to seem that she was a prodigy who got this all on her own but there’s no way she’d be where she is without Scott as the kind of mastermind.
‘She wouldn’t be so emotionally stable, either, without the love she gets from both Scott and Andrea, which is unusual in a business where parents often eat their own.
‘She’s lucky now to be with a guy who seems to be looking out for her as well.’
