Colleen Hoover said she’s “embarrassed” to say she wrote her 2016 New York Times best-selling novel “It Ends With Us” now that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are battling it out in court.
“I can’t even recommend it anymore. I feel like [the lawsuit] has overshadowed it,” Hoover said in a Thursday interview with Elle. “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.’”
Hoover’s remarks came after the drama surrounding Lively and Baldoni, the stars of the “It Ends with Us” film adaptation. Back in December 2024, Lively sued Baldoni, accusing the director-star of sexually harassing her on the set of the movie. Since then, the two have gone back in forth in a tense, viral legal battle.
What makes the entire ordeal much more uneasy for Hoover is the fact that her book is inspired by some of her mother’s painful life events that included her father.
“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,” Hoover said. She added that she hopes once the trial is over, she’ll be able to reestablish her love for the novel.
“The more time that passes, the easier everything gets for all of us,” Hoover said. “But it is sad, because I was very proud of that book. And I’m still proud of it, but less publicly so. Maybe I need therapy, I don’t know.”
She additionally described the legal onslaught as “disappointing,” “unfortunate” and “a circus.”
“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 told Elle.
“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,” the author continued. “So I’d rather just ignore it and let people think and say what they’re going to say,” she says. “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. Not even me.”
Baldoni and Lively’s trial is scheduled to start on March 9, 2026.
