Colleen Hoover is ready for the “It Ends With Us” drama to end.
The author, 45, made rare comments about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s ongoing legal war in a new interview with Elle, calling the situation “unfortunate” and “disappointing.”
“It feels like a circus,” Hoover stated.
“When there are real people involved, with real feelings and emotions,” she continued. “This actually truly has impacted some of the actors’ careers in huge ways. And I just find it all around sad.”
The outlet noted that Hoover was preparing to give a deposition in a few weeks at the time of the interview.
“I’m just trying to stay removed from the negativity,” she explained. “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.”
Hoover added, “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.”
Hoover’s 2016 best-selling romance novel was adapted into a 2024 movie starring Lively, 38, and Baldoni, 41, the latter of whom also directed the project. Hoover served as a producer.
After the film’s release, Lively sued Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment and allegedly orchestrating a retaliatory public smear campaign against her.
In turn, Baldoni countersued Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, alleging defamation, extortion and more. That $400 million lawsuit, however, was later dismissed by a judge.
Hoover told Elle that the lawsuit drama is especially painful since the book is inspired by her mother’s own experience with domestic violence.
“The book was inspired by her story, and now it gives us PTSD to think about it,” the author admitted. “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 went as far as admitting that she “can’t even recommend” the book anymore.
“I feel like [the lawsuit] has overshadowed it,” she explained. “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.’”
However, Hoover is hopeful that her perspective will eventually change.
“The more time that passes, the easier everything gets for all of us,” she 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.”
At the time of Lively’s initial complaints against Baldoni, Hoover publicly sided with the “Gossip Girl” alum.
“Blake Lively you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met. Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt,” Hoover wrote on Instagram last December.
But after Baldoni leveled his own claims against Lively, Hoover briefly deleted her Instagram account and stayed silent about the controversy.
Lively’s original lawsuit against Baldoni is going to trial in March 2026.
