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Colleen Hoover Finally Breaks Her Silence on the Ongoing ‘It Ends With Us’ Legal Drama
Colleen Hoover is finally speaking out about the legal drama surrounding the film adaptation of her book It Ends With Us.
The film’s stars, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, have filed lawsuits against each other alleging claims including experiencing sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, the orchestrating of smear campaigns, and more.
In a new interview with Elle, Hoover opened up about what it has been like behind the scenes of the major headlines that have played out over the past year and a half.
While Hoover wrote the book and was an executive producer on the film, she was not on set for the majority of filming, so she has tried her best to publicly stay away from the drama.
“It feels like a circus,” she shared in the November 20 interview. “When there are real people involved, with real feelings and emotions. This actually truly has impacted some of the actors’ careers in huge ways. And I just find it all around sad.”
While ordinarily, a book or film getting media attention is a great thing, the horrific accusations being made about the environment on set have cast an unfortunate shadow over what was meant to be a highlight of Hoover’s career.
“I’m just trying to stay removed from the negativity,” Hoover continued in the interview with Elle. “I have my own story I could tell… but I don’t want to bring attention to it, and I don’t want to have to put someone else down to lift myself up. So, I’d rather just ignore it and let people think and say what they’re going to say.”
With each new headline, swarms of people were quick to passionately defend whoever’s side they were taking online.
“I feel like it’s so big at this point that there’s nothing anyone can say to change whatever opinion people have of it, even though no one has the actual truth,” Hoover added, clarifying, “Not even me.”
For Hoover, the negativity surrounding the lawsuits has also been extra hard on her family, since the book is inspired by the story of her own mother leaving her abusive husband (Hoover’s biological father) when Hoover was a toddler.
“The book was inspired by [my mom’s] story, and now it gives us PTSD to think about it,” she said. “I feel awful because I almost feel like she’s gone through more with the aftermath of this film, more pain than she went through with my dad, just seeing the ugliness of it.”
The public speculation about what occurred on the film set has become so heated that Hoover now regrets being associated with the title It Ends With Us at all.
“I’m almost embarrassed to say I wrote it,” Hoover admitted. “When people ask what I do, I’m just like, ‘I’m a writer. Please don’t ask me what I wrote.'”
Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni is still pending with the trial expected to begin in March 2026. It’s unlikely that things will die down for some time, until the trial is officially complete.
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