Colleen Hoover ‘Embarrassed’ by It Ends With Us Amid Legal Fight

Colleen Hoover says she is now “almost embarrassed” to admit she wrote It Ends With Us, as the legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni continues to engulf the hit adaptation of her bestselling novel.

The 2024 film, directed by Baldoni and starring Lively, became a $350 million global sleeper hit. But its success has been overshadowed by accusations of sexual harassment and retaliation, a countersuit, and a swirl of leaked messages and rumors that Hoover describes as feeling like “a circus.”

From Sleeper Hit to Courtroom Saga

In a recent interview, Hoover called the conflict between Lively and Baldoni “unfortunate” and “disappointing,” stressing the personal toll it has taken. The novel was inspired by her mother’s real experience of domestic violence, making the fallout especially painful.

“The book was inspired by her story, and now it gives us PTSD to think about it,” Hoover said, noting that watching the public ugliness around the film has caused her mother “more pain than she went through” with Hoover’s father. She has even pulled back from publicly recommending the book, saying, “I’m almost embarrassed to say I wrote it.”

Hoover served as an executive producer on the Sony adaptation and visited the set, but says she was “completely unaware” of any on-set tensions at the time. She is preparing to give a deposition in the ongoing case and has tried to “stay removed from the negativity,” according to Variety.

Hoover Distances Herself as More Adaptations Loom

The controversy escalated after Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios partners of harassment and retaliation following complaints about on-set conditions. Baldoni’s $400 million countersuit was later dismissed in June 2025, as reported by People. Earlier disputes included Baldoni allegedly claiming Lively had not read the original novel.

Hoover has quietly begun to distance herself from the movie, even scrubbing older promotional posts featuring Lively and Baldoni from her social media, according to The Independent. She admits the legal storm has “overshadowed” the story she was once proud to share.

Despite the drama, Hoover’s Hollywood presence is only growing. Paramount released an adaptation of her novel Regretting You earlier in 2025, and major films based on Reminders of Him and Verity—the latter set to star Anne Hathaway—are slated for 2026, per Yahoo.

Hoover’s next novel, Woman Down, arriving in January, reportedly follows an author facing backlash over a film adaptation—an eerie echo of her current reality. For readers, the saga around It Ends With Us has become a case study in how a deeply personal book can be transformed, and sometimes distorted, once Hollywood steps in.