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It Ends With Us: Did Author Colleen Hoover’s Reputation Suffer Amid Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Legal Battle? Expert Reveals
Collen Hoover’s best-selling novel has been tainted amid the legal drama between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively. An Expert suggested that this could affect the author’s reputation.
Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of sexual harassment
Colleen Hoover wrote the 2016 best-selling novel It Ends With Us, which was adapted into the 2024 eponymous film starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. However, the once cherished novel has been tainted due to the ongoing legal drama between the lead actors.
In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni with sexual harassment and smear campaign charges. In retaliation, the actor and director filed a $400 million countersuit with defamation and extortion charges. The legal battles have been intensifying, with new revelations related to the case occurring every day.
As for Hoover, she initially supported Lively on social media after the actress filed her lawsuit. Calling her an "honest, kind, supportive and patient" person, the best-selling author took Lively's side at the initial stages of the legal battle.
"Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt," Hoover wrote in her Instagram story at the time with a picture of the two hugging at the movie's screening. However, with Baldoni's bombshell countersuit and the internet siding with him, Hoover had no choice but to protect her reputation.
She has since deleted all mentions or pictures of Lively from her Instagram, but unfortunately, the gesture only complicated the matter and her involvement in it. She deleted her social media accounts in January and reinstated them the next month.
However, netizens filled her comment section with verbal attacks and abuse for supposedly trying to cover up her previous statements. Some even went to the extent of warning her that they'll boycott her future projects.
A reputation management expert, Ryan McCormick, told Fox News that Hoover potentially risked her career and reputation by siding with Lively. "I don't foresee any way that Hoover's career is not affected in some way by Lively and Baldoni's war," he said.
He claimed that with Hoover's fanbase significantly reduced, her future projects, including the adaptation of her 2018 book Verity starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, could be at risk of failing.
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