Colleen Hoover isn’t happy with the ending.
Hoover, who wrote the bestseller “It Ends With Us,” addressed the controversy surrounding the 2024 film adaptation of his novel starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, calling the conflict between the two actors “unfortunate” and “unfortunate.”
“It Ends With Us” was a sleeper hit, grossing $350 million worldwide, but a dispute between Lively and Baldoni, who also directed at Sony Pictures, made the film a lightning rod for drama. Months after the film’s release, Ms. Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Ms. Baldoni and her production company, Wayfarer Studios, of sexual harassment and retaliation, alleging that the director and producers launched a smear campaign against her after she complained about conditions on set. A trial in Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios is scheduled for March 2026. Baldoni denies the charges and filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively.
“It feels like a circus,” Hoover said in an interview with Elle magazine. “When there are real people involved with real feelings and emotions. This actually has a huge impact on some actors’ careers. And I think that’s really sad.”
Huber was an executive producer on It Ends With Us and visited the set, but at the time he was “not aware of anything going on” between Baldoni and Lively. She is currently preparing to give a deposition on the matter in the coming weeks. Otherwise, she’s trying to “stay away from the negativity.”
“I have my own story to tell, and I don’t want to draw attention to it, and I don’t need to put anyone down to uplift myself,” she told ELLE. “So I just want to ignore it and let people think and say whatever they want. I feel like at this point this issue is so big that there’s nothing anyone can say to change the opinions people have about it, even though no one knows the actual truth. Not even me.”
After this experience, Hoover admitted that he had mixed feelings about the novel, which was based on his mother’s life. This story deals with domestic violence, where a flower shop owner is physically abused by her attractive brain surgeon husband.
“This book was inspired by her story, and now it’s given us a reason to think about PTSD,” Huber said of her mother. “Just seeing the ugliness of this movie and feeling like she’s going through even more pain in the aftermath of this movie than she went through with her dad makes me feel so bad.”
Huber said she is now “almost embarrassed” to tell people she wrote “It Ends With Us,” but said she hopes she will feel differently once the trial is over.
The author said, “I can’t even recommend it anymore. I feel like (the lawsuit) is overshadowing it.” “I’m almost embarrassed to say I’ve written. When people ask me what I do, I just say, ‘I’m a writer. Don’t ask me what I’ve written.'” The more time passes, the easier it all becomes for all of us. But it’s sad because I was so proud of that book. I’m still proud of it, but I don’t do it very publicly. Maybe I need treatment, I don’t know. ”
Despite the drama, Hoover became a major force in Hollywood. The film adaptation of her book, Regretting You, was released by Paramount in October and has grossed $82 million. Two of her other novels, Verity and Reminders of Him, are being adapted into films by Amazon MGM and Universal, respectively, for theatrical release in 2026.
