Colleen Hoover Admits She’s “Embarrassed” to Have Written ‘It Ends With Us’ After Lawsuit

Catch Up

• The film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s New York Times bestseller, It Ends With Us, came out last year.
• The movie’s stars, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, got into a public feud, resulting in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit that is set to go to trial in March 2026.
• Colleen spoke about the drama for the first time in a recent interview published by Elle on Nov. 20.

Colleen Hoover is breaking her silence on the public feud between It Ends With Us stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. The best-selling author opened up about the drama for the first time in a new interview with Elle, and she revealed how she feels in the aftermath of the lawsuit.

“It feels like a circus,” she told the outlet. “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.”

She then revealed why she opted to stay silent since the lawsuit kicked off last December, saying, “I’m just trying to stay removed from the negativity. 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.”

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Now, Colleen admits that she’s “embarrassed” to tell people she wrote the book because of the lawsuit. “The book was inspired by [my mom’s] story, and now it gives us PTSD to think about it,” she shared. “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.”

She continued, “I can’t even recommend it anymore. I feel like it has overshadowed it. I’m almost embarrassed to say I wrote it. When people ask what I do, I’m just like, ‘I’m a writer. Please don’t ask me what I wrote.’”

In December 2024, Colleen seemingly supported Blake with an Instagram Story post when she initially filed a sexual harassment and retaliation complaint against Justin. “[Blake] you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,” the author wrote alongside a photo of her hugging Blake in a movie theater, per Just Jared. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”

Justin filed a $400 million counter lawsuit against Blake and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for defamation and extortion, which ended in October 2025 after he missed the deadline to amend the claims and refile. Per People, a judge previously dismissed Justin’s case against Blake and Ryan, as well as his $250 million defamation case against The New York Times, in June.

However, the It Ends With Us drama is far from over. According to ABC News, Blake’s lawsuit, which claims sexual harassment and retaliation against Justin, remains active and will go to trial in March.